EXPLORE...

Places

• Palazzo delle Papesse
• Villa "Il Gioiello"

Biographies

• Galileo Galilei
• Urbano VIII (Maffeo Barberini)

The election of Pope Urban VIII in 1623 roused new hopes in Galileo, who mistakenly believed that he could resume his battle in defence of the new astronomy. This hope led him to publish, in 1632, the Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo [Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems] (Florence, 1632), an explicitly Copernican work.

The Dialogo was sequestered and Galileo, in January 1633, was summoned to Rome by the Court of the Inquisition. The trial ended on June 22nd of the same year, with the sentence of life imprisonment proclaimed against Galileo, who was forced to abjure. Consigned to the residence of the Tuscan ambassador to Rome, he was then allowed to leave the Papal city and was offered hospitality in Siena by his friend Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini. Finally, on December 1, 1633, the Congregation of the Holy Office allowed him to retire to his home at Arcetri, forbidding him however to receive any persons with whom he might discuss his scientific theories.