Galileo's Daughter
A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and LoveInspired by her long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter, which she has translated into English for the first time, Dava Sobel has written a book of great originality and power, a biography unlike any ever written on the man Albert Einstein called “the father of modern physics – indeed of modern science altogether.”Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the foremost scientist of his day. Though he never left italy, his birthplace, his inventions and discoveries were heralded around the world. His telescopes allowed him to reveal a new reality in the heavens and to publicly propound the astounding argument that the Earth actually moves around the Sun. For this belief he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and threatened with torture. In contrast, his daughter Virginia, became a cloistered nun. Born in 1600, she was thirteen when Galileo placed her in a convent near him in Florence, where she took the most appropriate name of Suor Maria Celeste.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
8mentions
6people
2013–2024years
50% recommend38% neutral13% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Seconding this, and I'd add that Sobel's Galileo's Daughter was also a good read for anyone interested in the history of science.
- I liked Longitude and would recommend Galileo's Daughter, also by Dava Sibel. It's a biography of Galileo supplemented with letters he exchanged with his daughter, who was a Catholic nun.
- I read a book, "Galileo's Daughter" that was not strictly about the heliocentrism affair, but gave enough of the details, plus what I thought was good insight into the surrounding social and political issues. One interesting political issue is that the Church hierarchy was facing accusations from lower level clergy, of being "soft on heresy" in the aftermath of the Reformation. Some people saw the Galileo affair as a test of whether the Church was willing to assert its authority or not. Also, Galileo had two trials, that were conducted under two different Popes. And some of the issues were clouded by the fact that it was actually hard to communicate between A and B in Italy. Apparently many of the letters back and forth were held up because they would not carry mail through towns that were under quarantine when a plague came through.
The text of Bellarmine's letter to Galileo is worth reading.
Note that I'm not defending the Church with my comments, but only documenting what I think was the technical difference between the Galileo and Bruno cases.
- I found the book "Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love" by Dava Sobel fascinating, really clarifies many misconceptions about Galileo.
- See also Galileo's Daughter:
> Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love is a book by Dava Sobel published in 1999. It is based on the surviving letters of Galileo Galilei's daughter [to him], the nun Suor Maria Celeste, and explores the relationship between Galileo and his daughter. It was nominated for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.[1]
- I read one of his biographies ("Galileo's Daughter") and I don't know where that characterization may come from, news to me (not disputing it).
Related
Longitude
41 recommend · 51
The Martian's daughter
2 recommend · 6
Children of Time
207 recommend · 345
A Deepness in the Sky
202 recommend · 551
Gödel, Escher, Bach
505 recommend · 1,439
Galileo, courtier
1 recommend · 3
The destiny of the republic
recommend · 7
