Galileo arrives in Rome to face the Inquisition
On this day · 13 February 1633
Aging and ill, Galileo reached Rome in 1633 to answer for a book that dared put the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of things.
On 13 February 1633, after a grueling journey that included a long quarantine at the border, Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome in a litter provided by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He had been summoned to face the Roman Inquisition over his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which championed the Copernican view that Earth orbits the Sun.
Nearly seventy and unwell, Galileo lodged at the Palace of Florence, home of the Tuscan embassy, until April. Advised to keep a low profile, he largely stayed indoors while officials prepared their case.
The trial turned on a disputed 1616 injunction said to forbid him from teaching heliocentrism as fact. Found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” he was forced to recant, his book was banned, and he spent his remaining years under house arrest.
It would take the Church until 1992 to formally acknowledge the verdict had been a mistake.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
