Galileo Galileo's letter reveals that the astronomer tried to deceive the Catholic Church

The astronomer Galileo Galilei's theories of the universe placed him in difficulty with the Catholic Church. He argued that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun, which is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the church in his day.

A newly discovered letter from the father of observational astronomy now revealed what he was doing to avoid the wrath of the mighty church, and this implied an old-fashioned ruse.

Salvatore Ricciardo, historian of the University of Bergamo in Italy, discovered the seven-page letter by flipping through a catalog at the Royal Society of London. As Nature details, The letter was addressed to the friend of Galileo, the mathematician Benedetto Castelli, dated December 21, 1613.

Inside, Galileo wrote that the heliocentric model of the solar system – which holds that planets revolve around the sun – does not inherently contradict the Bible. Galileo reasoned that the rare references to astronomical events in the scriptures should not be taken literally because the scribes who wrote them simplified the descriptions so that ordinary people could understand them.

In 1615, the Inquisition obtains the letter and transmits the missive to the Dominican brother Niccolò Lorini. Concerned about the possible consequences, Galileo made a gesture to appease the church.

Evidence has shown that Galileo has written a different and more delicate version of the original letter. He then asked a friendly cleric from Rome, Piero Dini, to pass it on to the Vatican, claiming that his enemies in the Church had betrayed the original letter to make it look bad.

"The changes are revealing. In one case, Galileo described some Bible proposals as "false if we rely on the literal meaning of the words". He went through the word "fake" and replaced it with "different from the truth," Alison Abbott of Nature wrote.

Abbott, who first reported the discovery, said the letter provided the strongest evidence that at the beginning of his fight against the religious authorities of his day, Galileo was engaged in damage control by broadcasting a a light version of his statements.

Despite Galileo's efforts, the Inquisition ordered him to give up his defense of the Heliocentric model in 1616. He was later tried because of his scientific theories. In 1633, Galileo was convicted of "strong suspicion of heresy". He lived his days on a rigorously imposed house arrest and died nine years later.

Ricciardo and his colleagues are now trying to determine when the letter arrived at the Royal Society Library – and how long it has been there.