Milton visiting Galileo, illustration. This meeting, between Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, seated) and the English poet John Milton (1608-1674, left), supposedly took place in 1638. Galileo was convicted as a heretic, for his support of the Copernican theory, by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. He was placed under house arrest until the end of his life. Milton is known to have explored Italy and a number of artworks show this meeting. Milton was later to mention Galileo's situation in his long poem Paradise Lost. Oil painting by Solomon Alexander Hart (1847).