Mrs.Boondoggle. Film Star, Supermodel, Jet-setter, Bon Vivant.
Mr. R. Seffredi Owner of the farmhouse where the Guido Boondoggli papers were discovered.
The remarkable Father Cripin is an "MD". He decided follow the service of the Lord, and eventually became responsible for modernising the world renowned Vatican Archive. This will allow the archive to be utilised by more people with great ease, from all over the world via the Internet. (taken before he became a man of the (cloth).
Guido Boondoggli, amateur scientist,astronomer,cartogropher.Before the Inquisition interviewed him.
Guido Boondoggli one week later after being interviewed by the Inquisition.
Foucault's Pendulum,used centuries before by G. Boondoggli
My uncle Father Sean O'Boondoggle emailed this to me, it was in a Smithsonian Magazine he subscribes to. In 2001 although in the shadow of the Y2K panic and the Dot Com bubble, historians worldwide were buzzing about the documents found in a very old farm house near Maranello Italy. During repairs, workmen found a cashe of seemingly ancient writing, and informed the homeowner, one Mr. Seffredi, an employee of the famous Ferrari motor company. As a patron of all things Italian, their in house historian contacted people he knew in the field who descended on Seffredi's old farmhouse to see if the documents actually were of any value. A cursory glance was all that was needed to for the Ferrari Foundation to make a grant to finance the moving of what the scholars described as "a treasure trove" to the Ferrari facilities, close by. There to be stored in a climate controlled room for perusal by the document experts.
The documents were xrayed and subjected to photography using the usual array of light (ultra violet, different lasers etc) so as to not lose any information in case the ancient paper fell to pieces during the almost surgical opening of the same. Even as only part of the writings were opened, it became obvious that this was a treasure and seemed to indicate the amateur astronomer and cartographer had independantly come to the same conclusion as Galileo Galilie, except fifteen years earlier! The scholars speculated that these postulations had been hidden away because the writer was employed as a builder of towers and church steeples and thought his work would be regarded as heresy by the Inquisition. Much evidence showed that these were genuine documents and tiny samples were analysed for correct ink for that time period, correct paper, consistent handwriting etc. Then the search for the author became the link needed for credible publication in the journals such as Smithsonian etc.
Interest waned somewhat as time passed. The search for the name of the author of this work was important to give credability and to popularise this body of evidence so as to enable it to be accessed more. The area of Maranello had been bombed flat during WW II by the American Army Air Force when the Germans were allied with Italy. Subsequent application of more tons of bombs turned the rubble to dust, and completely ruined any chance of refering to the local church documents to ascertain the name of the prodigious scientist. Fortunately, the world was to get a clue from out of the clear blue sky which cleared up the matter, divulged more knowledge, and explains why I had any interest in the whole matter in the first place!....It was a young priest, an English priest , Father Cripin,who solved the mystery. As a newcomer to the use of computers to arrange files so as to be able to reference them easily, Father Cripin worked at the Vatican Archive.
Father Cripin was attempting to arrange a system of referencing the many documents so that the scholars from all over the world could refer to the archives by computer, rather than having to come to Vatican City, and this would also reduce wear on the fragile documents and artifacts. He was reading an article in one of the publications he recieved at the Vatican. He said later,"I had a thought which was like when you drive down a street and glance at a sign, then later someone asks you if you know where so and so is, and you have this nagging feeling you've seen it, but can't quite remember where!" This was regarding a fellow who was a builder of towers in northern Italy who had been questioned by the Inquisition about some heresy he was alleged to have committed. Father Cripin: " I searched high and low. In my growing database, there was nothing! I searched every university database...nothing. Then I was practicing a coin trick and my coin fell on the floor....
"The coin fell on the floor and rolled unde a pile of paintings stacked against the wall. Upon looking, I noticed a sort of tunnel, which allowed entry to a door, but impossible to see unless you knew about it! I opened the door which had obviously had been closed for many years. I could see why! Someone, or a few people had been using this hidden room to puff cigarettes and swig wine while they scrutinised various papers and artifacts. I claimed this room as an office of my own, and decided to catalogue the papers my predecessor had been working on! By extreme good luck, and some say the intercession of the Virgin Mary, there was the article regarding the about the find in the Siffredi Farm House wrapped around some ancient Inquisition documents, as if they were going to be shipped off for the purpose of research! A synopsis of what was contained therein was as follows: Guido Boondoggli, tower builder and amateur scientist has spoken of the Heresy which asserts the Earth's rotation!
Father Cripin continued..." I soon was in touch with the Ferrari company and they took care of sending the team of people to check the Inquisition documents. The Inquisition had been slightly overzealous in trying to get Guido Boondoggli to say exactly what he had been postulating regarding the arangement of the Solar System. Boondoggli had been tied to the top inside one of his own towers. They attatched a ninety foot long cord to his genitals and as a final insult, swung the weight as far as they could to further torture him into spilling the beans on himself. He managed to keep quiet about the work he had stashed away in the farm house. But he did reveal something he had thought of in the magic of the moment while having his private parts stretched by a large stone at the end of a ninty foot cord. Boondoggli said "As I writhed in agony, I realised that the weight was stabilised by the pendulum motion. I saw the room rotating around the weight! Thus I knew the Earth did rotate!"
Father Cripin..."The Inquisition document stated that Boondoggli's statement about the pendulum were the ravings of someone driven insane by excessive persuasion. They decided to allow him to live so long as he gave of his own free will, all his property, and lived as a beggar in a different town." Since no further information seemed available regarding Boondoggli, it is assumed that he did actually take the advice of the Inquisitors! His theories hidden in the wall, remained intact despite members of the clergy living in that house till Mr. R. Sifferdi purchased it. so the obvious conclusion by the scholars studdying the Farm House documents, and the Vatican archive documents were: That the handwriting was from the same hand. That Boondoggli had preceeded Galileo by fifteen years in independantly concluding that the Earth rotated around the Sun. That the use of a pendulum to prove rotation of the Earth was first used by Boondoggli hundreds of years before Foucault.
So you can see why my uncle Father Sean O'Boondoggle sent me the interesting information about my family. Whereas, before I thought the families greatest achievements were in the fields of robbery and debauchery, I now know it includes men of science too.
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