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weeks had scarcely elapsed after Galileo's return from Rome, when he received from his friend Francesco Stelluti the startling intelligence of the death of his influential patron, Prince Cesi, who had been snatched away on 1st August by an attack of fever, after a few days' illness. This was a great blow to Galileo. It was not only that he lost in the prince an adherent, as influential as he was devoted, but his death just then was of the greatest moment on account of hethe [sic] "Dialogues." There was, perhaps, no one so well qualified to forward their publication as Cesi, who, as president of the Accadémia dei Lincei, seemed just the man for it. The Academy, deprived of its strongest support, was gradually dissolved, after the hand was wanting which knew how to weave its multitudinous threads into a firm and solid fabric.

Only the third week after the prince's death, Galileo felt the first effects of his heavy loss. In a letter of 24th August, Castelli urgently advised him "for many most weighty reasons which he did not wish just then to commit to paper, to have the work printed at Florence, and as soon as possible." Castelli added that he had inquired of Father Visconti whether this would present any difficulties, to which he had replied that there was nothing to prevent, and he