Note 396 — Chapter IX · THE SENTENCE AND RECANTATION.

It is very remarkable that Jagemann, in his book on Galileo, which appeared in 1784 (New Ed. 1787, pp. 86, 95), doubts the fact of such a special prohibition. Of course he is acquainted only with the sentence published by Riccioli, and surmises that he invented the passage in which the special prohibition is mentioned, “in order to justify the harsh proceedings of the Court of Rome under Urban VIII.” So that ninety years ago, without anything to go by but the wording of the sentence, Jagemann suspected that this strict prohibition was never issued to Galileo, and says,—“Neither does this decree agree with the information given above on all points,” i.e., in letters of Galileo and Guiccardini of 1616.