time longer, he returned to his villa at Arcetri, not to leave it again alive. Was this move a voluntary one? We have no document which finally settles the question. But we hold ourselves justified in doubting it. Not only because it is difficult to reconcile a voluntary return to Arcetri with his previous efforts to obtain permission to reside in Florence, but there is a later letter from him bearing the expressive date: "From the Villa Arcetri, my perpetual prison and place of exile from the city."[1] And when the wife of Buonamici, who was distinguished for her mental powers, gave him a pressing invitation to Prato, which is only four miles from Florence, he reminds her in his reply of 6th April, 1641, that "he was still a prisoner here for reasons which her husband was well aware of"; he then presses her to visit him at Arcetri, adding: "Do not make any excuses, nor fear that any unpleasantness may accrue to me from it, for I do not trouble myself much how this interview may be judged by certain persons, as I am accustomed to bearing many heavy burdens as if they were quite light."[2] From such utterances it is clear that Galileo had little pleasure in residing at Arcetri, and that therefore his second banishment from Florence was not voluntary, but was the result of a papal order.[3]
- ↑ "Dalla Villa Arcètri, mio continuato carcere ed esilio dalla città." (Letter from Galileo to Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome, of 20th Jan., 1641, Op. vii. p. 351.)
- ↑ Op. vii. pp. 364, 365.
- ↑ Pieralisi thinks ("Urbano VIII. and Galileo Galilei," p. 264) that it was left to Galileo's option during the last few years to reside either at Arcetri or Florence, and that his preference for his villa led him to choose the former; a statement for which Pieralisi has no proof to offer, and which is strongly opposed to what we have mentioned above.
