Galileo next addressed himself to Riccardi; represented to him the great obstacles to publishing the work at Rome, and therefore asked permission to publish it at Florence. This was the beginning of troubles. The chief of the Roman censorship at first roundly refused, and when Galileo urged his request again, he informed him through the Tuscan ambassador at the papal court, Francesco Niccolini, that the work must be sent in for final revision as agreed upon, without which he should never have consented to the publication. Castelli also wrote to Galileo on 21st September,[233] as commissioned by Riccardi, that as his coming himself to Rome, as originally agreed upon, was rendered impossible by the outbreak of the plague, he had better send the manuscript to Riccardi, in order that he and Mgr. Ciampoli might make the final corrections. Castelli said further that Riccardi was still very favourably disposed to Galileo, and that when his work had undergone this censorship, he could send it to press in Florence as well as anywhere else. After this Galileo made inquiries whether, under present circumstances, a large packet of MSS. could be sent safely over the border. But he was everywhere met with a negative, and the remark that mere letters scarcely passed. In vain he applied to the postmaster, in vain he appealed to the Grand Ducal secretary of state, Bali Cioli, for help; no means could be devised, under the strict close of the frontiers, whereby the bulky work could be transmitted to Rome with any prospect of safety.
Greatly disconcerted, Galileo represented this state of things to Riccardi, and offered to send, at any rate, the preface and conclusion of the “Dialogues,” that the ecclesiastical authorities might alter these important parts of the work as seemed good to them, and said that he was willing to designate the Copernican views mentioned in the book as mere chimeras, paralogisms, dreams, and fantasies, which, as is well known, was afterwards actually done. As to the final revision, Galileo proposed that Riccardi should entrust it to some one at Florence. Exceedingly annoyed by all these obstacles to an early publication of his “Dialogues,” Galileo at the same time asked the Tuscan ambassador, Niccolini, and his wife, who were well disposed towards him, to try and induce Riccardi, whom he had often seen at their house, to accept this proposal. And what friends and colleagues of the chief censor and other eminent men had failed in, was accomplished by the delicate mediation of a lady. On 19th October, 1630, Caterina Niccolini wrote to Galileo, that the Padre Maestro, who was heartily devoted to him, would obligingly excuse him from sending the whole work; let him send the introduction and conclusion, but on condition that the whole MS. should be revised before publication by some competent person at Florence, and by a theologian empowered by the ecclesiastical authorities, who must belong to the Benedictine order. Father Riccardi proposed Father Clement for the task. The ambassador’s wife added, however, commissioned by the Master of the Palace, that if this choice were not agreeable to Galileo, he might himself propose a suitable person, who would be empowered to act.[234]