really so at all. The entire contents of the Vatican MS. were thereby by no means given to the public, but such a sight of it as the editor thought proper, and which was, as far as possible, an apology for the Inquisition. Instead of the full original text of the Acts, the world only received disjointed extracts, arbitrary fragments—in many instances nothing at all. Perhaps it was perceived at head-quarters that a comparison of Marini's work with the documents would bring strange things to light, for they were suddenly removed from the too public Vatican Library and placed among the papal archives.
And for a long time there seemed to be no disposition to place these important historical materials at the disposal of independent historians. Thus we learn from Albèri, editor of "Le Opere di Galileo Galilei," Florence, 1842–1856, in 16 vols., in which all the materials for the history of Galileo are collected, that Marini had made obliging offers to him about the Vatican MS.; but his death put an end to the hopes thus raised, and Albèri had to content himself with reproducing the extracts and documents given by Venturi and Marini. It is obvious that the MS. was not accessible to him, or he would surely have included the Acts in his great work. Professor Moritz Cantor, who asked to see them ten years later, met with no better success. He complains bitterly in his essay, "Galileo Galilei," that the attempts he made through the good offices of an eminent savant, with Father Theiner, keeper of the Secret Archives, had been without avail.
However, though neither Albèri nor Cantor attained their wish, Henri de L'Epinois, a few years later, was more successful. In the introduction to his work, "Galilée, son procès sa Condemnation," 1867, he relates that in a conversation with Theiner at Rome, he expressed his regret at the inadequacy of Marini's book, and his desire to see the subject of Galileo's trial cleared up. Theiner liberally responded to this appeal by placing the documents at his disposal.
