APPENDIX. I. HISTORY OF THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT. We know next to nothing of the history of the Vatican MS. up to the time when Napoleon I. took possession of the papal city. During this period, when proud Rome had sunk so low as to be a department of France, in 1811, by the mandate of the then ruler of the world, the treasures of the Vatican archives were removed from Rome to Paris. Among them was the volume containing the Acts of Galileo's trial. It is not known how Napoleon's special attention came to be directed to them; but it is certain that he requested Alexander Barbier, then State Librarian, to furnish him with a detailed report about them. Barbier handed it to the Minister of Worship and Instruction. He also proposed that the whole of the documents should be printed, in the interests of historical truth, in the original Latin and Italian, with a French translation. The proposal was approved by the Emperor, and the volume was handed over to Barbier that he might have the translation made. When the convulsions of 1814 had swept Napoleon out of Paris, and transported him to Elba, and the Bourbons 1 Somewhat abridged, as are also the Description and Estimate of the Vat. MS.-[TR.] * See for this and what immediately follows, "Le Manuscrit Original du Procès de Galilée," par L. Sandret. Revue des Questions historiques, 1 Oct., 1877, pp. 551–559. again ruled France, the Roman curia repeatedly took steps to regain possession of the volume. After the return of Pius VII. to Rome in 1814, after his compulsory residence at Fontainebleau, Mgr. Marini was staying at Paris as Papal Commissary, in order to demand from the new French Government the restitution of the archival treasures taken by Napoleon from the Holy See. He first applied for the Acts of Galileo's trial to the Minister of the Interior, who referred him to the Count de Blacas, Minister of the Royal Household. He assured Marini that he would have a search instituted in the royal library. He wrote on the same day to Barbier charging him to search for the documents, and to report to him on their historical value. Barbier's answer is too characteristic not to be given. "A Son Excellence le Ministre de la Maison du Roi, Monseigneur, Paris, 5 Decembre, 1814. Je m'empresse de répondre à la lettre par laquelle votre Excellence me fait l'honneur de me demander s'il existe, dans le dépôt général des bibliothèques de S.M. ou dans l'une de ses Bibliothèques particulières, des pièces qui faisaient partie des Archives Pontificales et qui sont reclamées par le garde de ces Archives, savoir le procès de Galilée. Il y a plus de trois aus que je possède le procès de Galilée. Rien n'est plus célèbre que ce procès dans l'histoire des Sciences et dans celle de l'Inquisition. Aussi s'en est on occupé avec un grand zèle jusqu'à ces derniers temps; ce qui est probablement cause qu'après l'avoir examiné avec tante l'attention qu'il merite, je n'y ai remarqué ancun détail qui ne soit connu (sic). L'importance de ce recueil consiste donc principalement dans la réunion des pièces qui ont motivé, dans le XVIIe siècle, la condamnation d'un habile astronome, pour une opinion qui est généralement enseignée aujourd'hui dans toutes les écoles, même ecclesiastiques. It is clear that Barbier expected to find support in the Acts of the trial for the assumed torture of Galileo; and as they reported nothing of the kind, and could not report anything consistently with the facts of history, the librarian entirely overlooked the vast importance of the papers. After this report Count Blacas felt no scruple about letting the Papal Commissary have them. On 15th December the minister wrote a note to Barbier, asking him for the volume of documents, that he might himself hand it to Marini.1 He also wrote to the Papal Commissary that the documents had been found, and that it would give him great pleasure to deliver them to him. Marini accordingly went three times to the minister's hotel, and once to the Tuileries, but without success. He therefore begged, in a letter of 28th January, 1815, to have a day and hour appointed for an audience. To his dismay he received in reply a letter from Count Blacas of 2nd February, 1815, saying that the King himself wished to look through the trial of Galileo, that the MS. was in his majesty's cabinet, and therefore could not be given up immediately, but it should be done as soon as the King had returned it.1 Marini, was therefore on the track of the documents, though he did not get them. But only twenty-four days after he received this explanation the famous hundred days. occurred, and Louis XVIII. left his palace in the darkness of night for Ghent. Napoleon had scarcely set out for St. Helena, and the legitimate sovereign made his entry into Paris, than we find the Papal Commissary again eagerly trying to get back the precious MS.5 But what must have been his dismay when he was informed by Count Pradel, temporary successor of Count Blacas, on 6th November, 1815, that the documents were no longer to be found 2 Marini, pp. 145, 146. 1 Sandret, p. 554. Y |