Galileo in Rome

The book offers a fascinating account of the six trips Galileo made to Rome, from his first visit at age 23, to his final fateful journey to face the Inquisition. The authors reveal how Galileo's fate may have been fixed by his own impudence, including creating a "fool" character in his Dialogue to voice the anti-heliocentric arguements of the Roman church. The authors show that throughout his trial, until the final sentence and abjuration, the Church treated Galileo with great deference, and once he was declared guilty commuted his sentence to house arrest. Here then is a unique look at the life of Galileo as well as a strikingly different view of an event that has come to epitomize the Church's supposed antagonism toward science.