Galileo Galilei

The register of baptisms at Pisa records his baptism on 19 February 1564 (Galileo trial documents, Opere 19, pp. 23–25). In his letter to the Grand Duchess Christina he argued that the Bible, rightly understood, cannot contradict what observation and demonstration establish about nature (Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, opening argument on Scripture and nature). In February 1616 he was warned by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine and ordered by the commissary of the Holy Office to give up the opinion that the earth moves (Galileo trial documents, minutes of 25 and 26 February 1616 (Opere 19, pp. 321–322)).

The sentence of 22 June 1633 calls him a Florentine, seventy years old, declares him vehemently suspected of heresy for his Dialogue and condemns him to imprisonment; he abjured the same day (Galileo trial documents, sentence and abjuration of 22 June 1633 (Opere 19, pp. 402–407)). The pope at once changed the prison to a palace in Rome, then to Siena, and in December to his own country house (Galileo trial documents, decrees of 23 June, 30 June and 1 December 1633 (Opere 19, pp. 284–286)). Notes collected by Vincenzio Galilei and printed in the same volume say that he died at his villa at Arcetri on 8 January 1642 (Galileo trial documents, Opere 19, p. 596). See the Trial of Galileo.