and fiercely stamping with his foot, he utters the famous words: "E pur si muove!" He is, therefore, thrown into the dank dungeons of the dreaded tribunal, where his eyes are put out!
The blinding of Galileo is a creation of the lively popular mind, which, with its love of horrors, embellishes tragical historical events by fictitious additions of this kind, just suited to the palates of people accustomed to coarse diet. Galileo's subsequent loss of sight may have given rise to the fable, which first appeared in the "History of Astronomy" by Estevius.[1] It is not known who was the inventor of the assumed exclamation, "E pur si muove," which sounds well, and has become a "winged word;" but besides not being historic, it very incorrectly indicates the old man's state of mind; for he was morally completely crushed. Professor Heis, who has devoted a treatise to the origin of this famous saying, thinks that he has discovered its first appearance in the "Dictionnaire Historique," Caen, 1789;[2] Professor Grisar tells us, however, in his studies on the trial of Galileo, that in the "Lehrbuch der philosophischen Geschichte," published at Würzburg, 1774, fifteen years earlier, by Fr. N. Steinacher, the following edifying passage occurs:—
"Galileo was neither sufficiently in earnest nor steadfast with his recantation; for the moment he rose up, when his conscience told him that he had sworn falsely, he cast his eyes on the ground, stamped with his foot, and exclaimed, 'E pur si muove.'"[3]
Besides the fact that these words are not attributed to Galileo by any of his contemporaries, not even the best
- ↑ Fabroni, "Vitæ Italorum." Pisa, 1778, vol. i. p. 144.
- ↑ Heis, "Das Unhistorische des dem Galilei in dem Munde gelegten: 'E pur si muove.'" Munich, 1868.
- ↑ "Der Galileischen Process auf Grund der neuesten Actenpublicationen historisch und juristisch geprütf." Von Prof. H. Grisar, S. J. Zeitschrift für Kathol. Theologie. 2nd series. Innsbrück, 1878.
