Note 481 — Chapter I · GALILEO AT SIENA AND ARCETRI.

At the close of this year two documents were published which have often been used as historical sources for the story of Galileo’s trial; namely, (1) a narration by Francesco Buonamici of the famous trial; and (2) an assumed letter of Galileo’s to his friend and correspondent, Father Vincenzo Renieri, intended to give a concise history of the trial. The first has been pronounced by historical research to be quite worthless, even if not, as H. Martin (p. 185) thinks, a forgery; the second as decidedly apocryphal, so that neither are mentioned here. (Comp. Op. ix. pp. 449-452; vii. pp. 40-43; and the valuable treatise by G. Guasti: “Le relazioni di Galileo con alcuni Pratesi a proposito del Falso Buonamici scopalto del Signor H. Martin.” Archivo Storico Italiano. Firenze, 1873, vol. xvii.)