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There is an excellent book called The Sleepwalkers (I can't remember which author) that goes over this: the author went back to the original records and translated them himself. What stands out is that an incredibly brilliant guy who has the phenomal luck of having a friend become pope makes every effort to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and that he had papal protection throughout (ie, Galileo's enemies were allowed to threaten him but not harm him in any way).

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