Note 86 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
The fate of these documents is curious; after being long preserved at Rome, they were carried away in 1809, by order of Buonaparte, to Paris, where they remained till his first abdication. Just before the hundred days, the late king of France, wishing to inspect them, ordered that they should be brought to his own apartments for that purpose. In the hasty flight which soon afterwards followed, the manuscripts were forgotten, and it is not known what became of them. A French translation, begun by Napoleon's desire, was completed only down to the 30th of April, 1633, the date of Galileo's first return to Nicolini's palace.