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 in the hands of Mgr. Marino Marini, Prefect of the Secret Archives. So Gherardi had to content himself with seeking more or less evident traces of the trial among the Archives left in the greatest confusion and partly hastily plundered by the fugitive custodians. It was not without difficulty that he discovered, what was before unknown, that the Acts of the Inquisition were divided into two classes: the first contains the protocols of the sittings and decrees of the Holy Congregation, sometimes in full and sometimes merely extracts. The folios containing these were marked Decreta. The second class contains the protocols of the examinations of accused persons and witnesses, all Acts relating to trials, and finally the sentences passed. These folios were marked Processus. There was a third register marked Rubricelle, which served as an index to everything relating to any person or cause.

As there were not nearly so many gaps in the Decreta as in the Processus, Gherardi turned his attention, the Rubricelle in hand, to the former. He began to make extracts from the documents relating to Galileo's trial, and had already made ten, when he came upon a collection of papers containing thirty-two of such extracts, all relating to the trial. To these papers was added an extract from a letter from Count Blacas, from Prague, of 20th January, 1835, in which he stated that he had repeatedly, but without success, instituted a search for the Acts of Galileo's trial, which had been detained at Paris since 18 15, and that nothing would give him greater pleasure, should they come into his hands, than to deliver them to his Holiness, but this was not a suitable time to renew the demand for them.

It is clear from this letter that the curia made at least one attempt to regain possession of the Vat. MS. between 1820 and 1845, and Gherardi concludes from the circumstance that this letter was found with the said collection that a copy of it had been sent to the Count, perhaps to show him that it was desired to put all the papers