In 1633, Galileo was sentenced by the Holy Office to house arrest in his villa in Arcetri. House arrest meant something very different in seventeenth century Italy than it does today. It didn't necessitate being confined to a house. It was typically an injunction specifying where you can and can't go. Galileo commonly left the house to visit his daughters in a nearby convent, and there were other documented accounts of his leaving his house.

The loose application of 'house arrest' by the Holy Office allowed for an offender to continue working, even if it was outside his/her house [_1_] . Sending a "breadwinner" to prison was tremendously punitive to the offender's family, especially for the poor or middle class. The Inquisition's version of house arrest could punish the offender with less impact on the offender's family. House arrest and the use of penances was a more humane and practical alternative to prisons. Proper prison systems were still centuries away (the Industrial Revolution).

According to Galileo's correspondence, he frequently visited his daughters at a nearby convent during his "house arrest" [_2_] . When his friend, Elio Deodati, requested a portrait, Galileo made multiple sittings over a three month period at the studio of Justus Sustermans. The Sustermans studio was about 2 kilometres away. This was considered the limit of his quarantine area [_3_] .Galileo, in a letter to his friend Vincenzio Renieri, described his stay in Siena as confinement and his stay in Bellosguardo and Arcetri as "freedom of the country".

The photo above (from here) is an aerial view of Galileo's Villa Il Gioiello in Arcetri. It was a casa da signore, a landowner's villa. The villa was named The Jewel because of the beautiful view. Villas in the hills surrounding Florence had been used for centuries by the rich of Florence to escape the oppressive summer heat of the city. They were often larger than the owner's homes back in Florence. Arcetri was considered so beautiful that a few years before Galileo's arrival the Medicis had selected Arcetri as the site of their summer palace. Galileo's wine cellar at Villa Il Gioiello, stored the equivalent of 1200 bottles of wine. Detailed knowledge of the size, layout and contents of Villa Il Gioiello, during Galileo's lifetime are known through the letters from his daughter and an inventory taken by his son on his death [_4_] .

Although most of the duration of Galileo's house arrest was spent in Arcetri, a short time was spent at the villa above in Bellosguardo (image from here), which is closer to Florence and sits at a lower elevation. He had lived in this villa from 1617 to 1631. It was larger than his villa in Arcetri. Today, the villa is known as Villa dell'Ombrellino [_5_] .