Galileo affair

22 June 1633, at Santa Maria sopra Minerva

On 22 June 1633, at the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, the Inquisition's sentence was read out to Galileo. It declared him 'vehemently suspected of heresy' for having held the Sun stationary at the world's centre and the Earth in motion.

The tribunal ordered his Dialogue prohibited, sentenced him to formal imprisonment at the Holy Office's pleasure, and imposed a religious penance. Both the sentence and Galileo's own subscription date the proceeding to that day at the Convent della Minerva.

Kneeling, hands on the Gospels

Kneeling and touching the Gospels, Galileo recited and signed an abjuration renouncing, cursing, and detesting the condemned propositions, and promising never to assert them again.

The penance was arithmetic: seven penitential psalms, once each week, for three years.

What the record does not contain

'Eppur si muove' is nowhere in the trial record or the early biographies. Its earliest known printed attribution is Giuseppe Baretti's The Italian Library of 1757.

The official documents also speak of the centre of the 'world' — the universe — rather than the narrower modern concept of the Solar System.

The formal imprisonment was soon mitigated into confinement: in July Galileo was allowed to stay with Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini in Siena.