Background
He was born at Vienna in 1584 and died at Milan September 28, 1648.
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Melchior Inchofer
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He played an important part in the trial of Galileo, by his arguments that Galileo was an advocate of the Copernican system in Tractatus Syllepticus. His role in the Galileo affair is being reassessed in the light of fresh documentary evidence. In 1633 the Holy Office examined Galileo"s Dialogue of the Two World Systems, and Inchofer was one of three theologians appointed to assess the work, the others being Agostino Oreggi and Zaccaria Pasqualigo.
Inchofer"s lengthy report concluded that the Dialogue taught Copernicanism, that Galileo was a Copernican, and that the book was designed as an attack on Christoph Scheiner.
In 1634 he resumed his professorship in Sicily, where he remained until 1636, when his order called him to Rome that he might devote himself entirely to writing. He endorsed strongly the work of Athanasius Kircher on the Coptic language.
The last few years of his life were troubled, and he was brought to trial by his order in 1648. With the situation unresolved he undertook a journey to the Ambrosian library at Milan, but died there.
Membership
His dispute with Joachim Pasqualigo on the immorality of making castrati, and his appointment as member of the Congregation of the Index and of the holy office dissatisfied him with Rome, and at his own request he was transferred in 1645 to the college at Macerata where he intended to devote his leisure hours to the compilation of a history of martyrs.
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Born
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Died
September 28, 1648 (aged 63) -
Nationality
Austria