insertion is therefore an impossibility. Besides, the protocol of 21st June ends in the middle of fol. 435 ro, and, after a space of scarcely two fingers' breadth follows an annotation of 30th June, 1633, in exactly the same handwriting as the annotations of 16th June, 1633, 23rd September, 9th and 30th December, 1632. This really seems to render the bold conjecture of falsification wholly untenable.
The unquestioned genuineness of Galileo's signature, which concludes this as well as all the other protocols, is also a guarantee of its authenticity. Dr. Scartazzini has taken advantage of our information that this signature, unlike all Galileo's others, is in a very trembling hand, to assert that it is not genuine. We are of opinion that a forger would have taken every pains to make the signature as much like the others as possible, and certainly would not have written in remarkably trembling characters. No; this signature, which is unmistakably like the rest, reflects his fearful agitation, and is by no means a forgery, of the nineteenth century.
Let us see now why Dr. Scartazzini insists that not only the concluding sentence, but the whole protocol of 21st June, is a falsification. The reason is not far to seek. As we have seen, according to the rules of the Inquisition, if Galileo had really suffered torture, or if they had only proceeded to territio realis against him, within twenty-four hours of leaving the torture chamber he would have had to confirm the depositions made there, in the ordinary court. But the passing of the sentence and the recantation took place on the 22nd, on the day therefore on which the tortured Galileo would have had to ratify these depositions, and not till after this could the sentence be legally drawn up. Dr. Scartazzini sees plainly enough that Galileo's ratification, the drawing up and passing of the sentence, and the recantation, could not possibly all have taken place in one morning. But he finds his way out of this cul-de-sac in a remarkably simple manner; he boldly asserts that the date is false, that the
