Page:Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia (IA cu31924012301754).pdf/360

 part à Paris, et ce me semble, il doit se trouver dans quelque bibliothèque du roi, peut être même aux Archives de la liste civile. J'en parlerai a M. le baron de la Bouillerie.

Recevez, etc.,

."

But Darü's further inquiries seem to have been unsuccessful; anyhow, the long-sought-for volume remained concealed for seventeen years longer. In 1845 Gregory XVI. requested Pelegrino Rossi, French ambassador at Rome, who was devoted to the papacy, to use his influence to get the Acts restored, if they should be discovered at Paris. This shows that it was disbelieved at Rome that they could not be found. At first Rossi's urgent mediation only obtained the assurance from Louis Philippe that the Pope's cherished wish should be fulfilled, provided that the papers should be found, but on the express condition that they should be published entire at Rome. And as the curia, of course, promised to comply, the MS. which had been mysteriously concealed for thirty-one years was "found" and restored.

In 1848–9, when the Papal See was attacked by the revolutionary spirit which pervaded Europe, the fugitive Pope, Pius IX., confided the hardly-won documents to the prefect of the Secret Archives, Marino Marini. He not only took good care of them, but took the opportunity of fulfilling the obligation to the French Government incurred on their restoration. On 12th April, 1850, the Pope returned from Gaeta to his capital under the protection of French bayonets, and his thoughts must soon have recurred to these documents, for on 8th May of the same year he presented them to the Vatican Library. In the same year, also, Marini's work, "Galileo Galilei e l'Inquizione," appeared at Rome, intended to be the fulfilment of the French conditions.

We purposely say "intended to be," for they were not