After Galileo's condemnation at Rome, he had been placed by the Inquisition in the list of authors the whole of whose writings, '_edita et edenda_,' were strictly forbidden. Micanzio could not even obtain permission to reprint the Essay on Floating Bodies, in spite of his protestations that it did not in any way relate to the Copernican theory. This was the greatest stigma with which the Inquisition were in the habit of branding obnoxious authors; and, in consequence of it, when Galileo had completed his Dialogues on Motion, he found great difficulty in contriving their publication, the nature of which may be learned from the account which Pieroni sent to Galileo of his endeavours to print them in Germany. He first took the manuscript to Vienna, but found that every book printed there must receive the approbation of the Jesuits; and Galileo's old antagonist, Scheiner, happening to be in that city, Pieroni feared lest he should interfere to prevent the publication altogether, if the knowledge of it should reach him. Through the intervention of Cardinal Dietrichstein, he therefore got permission to have it printed at Olmutz, and that it should be approved by a Dominican, so as to keep the whole business a secret from Scheiner and his party; but during this negociation the Cardinal suddenly died, and Pieroni being besides dissatisfied with the Olmutz type, carried back the manuscript to Vienna, from which he heard that Scheiner had gone into Silesia. A new approbation was there procured, and the work was just on the point of being sent to press, when the dreaded Scheiner re-appeared in Vienna, on which Pieroni again thought it advisable to suspend the impression till his departure. In the mean time his own duty as a military architect in the Emperor's service carried him to Prague, where Cardinal Harrach, on a former occasion, had offered him the use of the newly-erected University press. But Harrach happened not to be at Prague, and this plan like the rest became abortive. In the meantime Galileo, wearied with these delays, had engaged with Louis Elzevir, who undertook to print the Dialogues at Amsterdam.
It is abundantly evident from Galileo's correspondence that this edition was printed with his full concurrence, although, in order to obviate further annoyance, he pretended that it was pirated from a manuscript copy which he sent into France to the Comte de Noailles, to whom the work is dedicated. The same dissimulation had been previously thought necessary, on occasion of the Latin translation of "The Dialogues on the System," by Bernegger, which Galileo expressly requested through his friend Deodati, and of which he more than once privately signified his approbation, presenting the translator with a valuable telescope, although he publicly protested against its appearance. The story which Bernegger introduced in his preface, tending to exculpate Galileo from any share in the publication, is by his own confession a mere fiction. Noailles had been ambassador at Rome, and, by his conduct there, well deserved the compliment which Galileo paid him on the present occasion.
