Galileo, banned or suspended.

[ollypenrice]

On my UCLAN history of astronomy course our tutor was most insistent that Galileo's Dialogue of the Two World Systems was not 'banned' (the highest level of censorship) but 'suspended,' a lower level. However Allan Chapman says 'banned' in the chapter I've just read. I presume we'll be translating from the Latin here so does anyone know any more about this?

Olly

[saac]

I never knew he was a forum member

O, ok, I'll leave now.

 

Jim

 

[jambouk]

Olly, do you have the original text so we can get it translated?

James

 

[ollypenrice]

14 minutes ago, jambouk said:

Olly, do you have the original text so we can get it translated?

James

 

No, I've not come across the latin. I'm just quoting English speaking historians here.

Olly

[Putaendo Patrick]

The whole Galileo Affair is enormously complicated, but I feel personality conflicts, character temperaments and politics came into it as much as a simple traditional theology versus modern science debate. I'll try to check the details more thoroughly over the next couple of days, but as I see it:

Galileo received permission to publish the Dialogue of the Two World Systems from a local censor (who subsequently got sacked). The book proved very popular in Italy and to a large extent "the cat was out of the bag" and the Catholic Church was left with "(poached?) egg on its face".

Galileo was however denounced to the Holy Office (the Inquisition). Initially a discrete reprimand turned into something of a show trial - with perhaps less importance attached to the book and more given to the fact that Galileo had been formally and explicitly instructed to stay off the topic much earlier. There were differing grades of heresy - the most serious was intentional. Galileo got charged with second degree, a vehement suspect of heresy - implying that while what he said or wrote might be heretical, it was not done so intentionally to corrupt the faithful.

Once Galileo was condemned by the Holy Office, the theme of his publications was passed over to the Sacred Congregation of the Index, another Vatican committee. They had three options, ban the book outright, order it to be purged (i.e. significantly censored) donec expurgetur, or merely corrected donec corrigatur. As I understand it, the Congregation took the relatively unusual measure of putting a blanket ban on anything that Galileo had ever published in the past or might want to publish in the future. This rather implies that the ban was implemented not so much on dangers of the texts themselves but more as an additional punishment on Galileo as a person.

So, perhaps, there is some confusion. Galileo was charged and convicted of a lesser charge than pure heresy - but the ban on all of Galileo's publications, not only the Dialogue, meant that there could be no censored or corrected re-publication if that is the implication of "suspended".

 

[jambouk]

Not listened to this but suspect it will be generalist but entertaining:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rr36x

James

 

[laudropb]

Hi Olly. I have just finished Dava Sobels book A More Perfect Heaven. She finishes her chapter on Galileo with the following. " The Dialogue then joined On the revolutions on the next Index of Prohibited Books. They both remain listed there - the one banned, the other suspended until corrected, both the subjects of continuing controversy and commentary - through the ensuing two centuries .

Dont know if this helps.

[jambouk]

Olly, another book which is cheap on the second hand market and which may be useful: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Copernicus-Secret-Scientific-Revolution-Began/dp/074328951X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466090785&sr=8-1&keywords=9780743289511

James

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

I've had a chance to check a few of the secondary sources, so to refine, correct and clarify my earlier post, here goes!

There is a very extensive literature on many different aspects of Galileo. One comprehensive general book I like is Atle Naes: Galileo Galilei, When the World Stood Still Springer 2005. Among books dealing with the trials of Galileo, Maurice A. Finocchiaro is always good, see for example his Defending Copernicus and Galileo Springer 2010. Likewise William R. Shea and Mariano Artigas: Galileo in Rome, The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius Oxford 2003, and Richard J. Blackwell: Behind the Scenes at Galileo's Trail Notre Dame University Press 2006.

To try to provide a bit of context, I've presented this as a sort of time-line:

1616 The Holy Office consider three books defending the Heliocentric view. Nicholas Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium and Diego de Zuñoga's Commentary on Job get banned pending revision while Paolo Antonio Foscarini's Opinion on the Pythagoreans and of Copernicus gets a total ban. Galileo is summoned by Cardinal Bellarmine who warns him to stay clear of the topic. This warning may be more or less informal, as Galileo later recollects, or may be a formal injunction as Vatican documents later suggest.

1618 - 1620 Initially the Congregation of the Index chose the simpler course of banning the De revolutionibus orbium but by 1618 Francisco Ingoli persuaded them that a corrected text should be produced. This became available in 1620, and although it was not printed, was made available to suitable scholars by special request.

1623 Maffeo Barbarini becomes Pope Urban VIII. Barbarini had been a friend and supporter of Galileo. In 1624 Galileo travels to Rome where he is cordially received by the new Pope.

Galileo begins the Dialogue. In 1633 he is questioned when and where he began it:

Q: When and where he composed the said book, and how long it took him.
A: In regard to the place, I composed it in Florence, beginning ten or twelve years ago; and it must have taken me seven or eight years, but not continuously.

1630 Galileo completes the Dialogue and travels to Rome to seek permission to publish it and have it printed by the Lyncean Academy. Galileo has a meeting with Pope Urban who appears is conducive to the book. The Dialogue is given to the Papal censor, Fr. Riccardi, for his consideration and approval. Riccardi consults with the Pope who apparently wants Galileo to incorporate a preface and conclusion which in part may have been drafted by the Pope himself. The final pages are to be sent one by one to Riccardi for authorisation as they become ready, but in general the Dialoges are approved.

1632 Prince Cesi, founder of the Lyncean Academy dies and Galileo moves the place of publication to Florence. Riccardi agrees the work can be approved by a local Florentine censor, perhaps reluctantly, but insists he sees the manuscript first. A plague epidemic complicates the process of sending pages to Rome. Finally in February 1632 the Dialogue come of the press in Florence in an edition of about 1,000 copies.

The title page of the work bears the description: “Advancing without conclusion the philosophical and natural arguments, equally for the one part as for
the other”, much as the Pope, one supposes, wanted. Quite clearly, however, the book sides with the Copernican view and gives a very weak argument against it. Accusations against the Dialogue come in.

Pope Urban first summons Riccardi for an explication. To protect himself, Riccardi writes to Florence requesting that, pending a possible correction, sales of the book are suspended and no further editions printed. Although without any legal force, the letter from a powerful member of the Papal Curia would no doubt have carried significant weight.

August 1632 The Holy Office officially suspends sales of the Dialogue, confiscates copies in bookshops and forbids further publication pending investigation. Pope Urban forms a commission to examine the book.

September 1632 The Commission reports back to the Pope, confirming their reading that Galileo clearly supported Copernicus in the Dialogue. They also uncover evidence of the 1616 injunction against Galileo. According to the Commission, "One must now consider how to proceed, both against the person
and concerning the printed book".

Pope Urban passes the matter to the Holy Office who order Galileo to present himself to them in Rome for questioning.

October 1632 In Florence Galileo is formally notified he must go to Rome.

Galileo procrastinates, suggesting a local trial in Florence in part due to his ill-health and the continuing plague. Finally Galileo receives an ultimatum, if he doesn't go to Rome by his own accord, he will be arrested and brought in chains.

February 1633 Galileo finally arrives in Rome and is interviewed on several occasions by the Holy Office.

Initially there is some hope that the matter can be dealt with in a low key manner. Galileo offers to amend the text and agrees in retrospect that the work may appear less impartial than he had intended.

Towards the end of the trial, with the conclusions more or less finished, Pope Urban seems to lose his temper. The Dialogue is banned by Papal degree (with no qualification) and Galileo's sincerity is to be examined under threat of torture.

22 July 1633 Galileo is formally condemned by the Holy Office. Among the punishments, it is stipulated:

"Furthermore, so that this serious and pernicious error and transgression of yours does not remain completely unpunished, and so that you will be more cautious in the future and an example for others to abstain from similar crimes, we order that the book Dialogue by Galileo Galilei be prohibited by public edict."

Effectively the prohibition was promulgated throughout Catholic Europe. In Florence it was read out to professors at the university. Copies of the book were to be handed in (although in Florence, at least, only one was and the "black market" price of the book rose considerably!

Two years later, when Fulgenzio Micanzio, one of Galileo's friends in Venice, sought to have Galileo's Discourse on Floating Bodies reprinted in 1635, he was informed by the Venetian Inquisitor that the holy Office had forbidden further publication of any of Galileo's works.

When Galileo died in 1642 he was buried in relative obscurity, the Church opposed a more ostentatious tomb. To me, there can be little doubt that Rome sought to discredit Galileo completely and the ban on the Dialogue was total for more or less one hundred years.