Galileo’s Inquisitor
Rome, 1633 - A Novel
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Pub Date Nov 1 2026 | Archive Date Nov 7 2026
ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op | Decision Publishing
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Description
Rome, 1633. Galileo Galilei, sixty-nine and ill, has been carried to the Holy Office on a litter. The charge they can name is a piece of paper from 1616. The offence they cannot name is the book in which he put the pope's own argument into the mouth of a fool.
Vincenzo Maculano, Commissary General of the Holy Office, is a military architect and a hard prosecutor. Handed the charge without the reason, he reads the book to the end, and finds something nobody in Rome has noticed. The proof at the heart of it does not work.
What he does with that, in a courtyard, walking an old man round an orange tree, is the business of this novel.
Every date, document, decision and outcome here is the historical record's. The conversations are invented.
Galileo's Inquisitor stands alone and reads in an evening. Readers who want the documented history behind it will find it in Galileo Galilei: What Counts as Proof, published the same day.
A Note From the Publisher
Every quotation in the book is sourced in the notes at the back, and the same source list is at davidstevensbooks.com/galileo if you want to check one against the record.
Reviews posted on or after 1 November help most. Goodreads, your own site and social accounts are all as welcome as the retailers.
Marketing Plan
Galileo's Inquisitor is one of six books publishing together on 1 November 2026 from Decision Publishing: five short narrative histories and a novel, each written to be read in a single evening.
Distribution. Paperback and case laminate hardcover through IngramSpark, returnable, available to the trade at a full 55% discount. Ebook in all major stores.
The series cross-promotes itself. Every book carries, straight after its epilogue, the opening of another book in the series and a link back to the author's site. The six are written to be read in any order and to send readers to each other.
Author site. davidstevensbooks.com carries a research section for each subject: a timeline, the full source list, and direct answers to the questions readers actually search for. Was Galileo tortured? Did he say "and yet it moves"? These pages are the book's long-term discovery engine.
Readers' list. Readers are offered The Trial File, a short free book on what the documents in Galileo's trial file actually say, for joining the list.
Reviews. Advance copies through this listing and through Booksprout ahead of publication.
Companion title. Galileo: What Counts as Proof, publishes the same day and is listed separately here.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9798953350099 |
| PRICE | $9.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 174 |