Aside from my abject failure at the Italian language, I think my objection can be sustained. Semmelweis, for instance, was fired for his continued insistence that hand washing by doctors prevented disease; and met his end in a sanitarium. He saved many lives by insisting on hand washing, even though he predated the germ theory of disease, and there was probably something akin to a utilitarian calculation in his giving up his own welfare for that of many others.

So, one does not go to one's death for the truth of the propositions one doesn't understand, but rather for the way the implications of those propositions affect one's terminal values. This brings us much closer to the religious who believe that very bad things happen if they recant their creed.

Indeed, because it's ungrammatical. The phrase that Galileo may (not) have said is:

Eppure si muove

(EDIT: Unless, of course, what was meant was:

Eppure....sì, muovo!

i.e., "And yet....yes, I move!")

I think that the legend works best as a legend if it's known to be untrue. After all, the point is that whether he said it or not, the earth kept moving.