Galileo's Daughter A Historical Memoir of Science Faith and Love by Dava Sobel

Galileo's Daughter A Historical Memoir of Science Faith and Love Reviews

• 
  Will Byrnes

  Well it’s really about Galileo The daughter thing is a hook and I found that to be the weakest part of the book Galileo in this historical memoir has had three children by a woman not his wife The daughters are thus unmarriageable and are sent to a convent The daughter of the title sends him letters usually including reuests for money This book provides considerable detail about the travails the great scientist endured in his uest to explain the world The Catholic Church is the pre eminent political institution of its time and thus Galileo must deal with the reality he inhabits trying to find ways around the silliness of revealed truth It is entertaining and interesting Not a must read and feel free to skip the letters from his daughter but a worthwhile read nonetheless
• 
  Bionic Jean

  Einstein said of Galileo that he was the father of modern physics of modern science altogether We think of him as the father of astronomy But how much do we really know about his life? The answer surprisingly is uite a lot This book entitled Galileo's Daughter is a dual biography both of Galileo and of his eldest daughter a cloistered nun of the Poor Clares It is also in part a fascinating chronicle of a 17th Century clash between Science and Catholic doctrine; arguably the most historically significant and intense battle between religious belief and scientific knowledge Sobel's account is compiled in the main from the 120 letters translated from the Italian written by Suor Maria Celeste which she weaves into her narrative Sadly none of Galileo's letters still survive although it is clear that they were in contact daily and that Maria was his most trusted confidanteGalileo had 3 illegitimate children to care for Maria formerly Virginia was his eldest daughter and was placed in the convent at the age of 13 The life there was almost unbelievably gruelling to modern sensibilities but the letters convey how privileged and honoured she felt to be serving in this capacity The next daughter also placed in the convent was a depressive and Maria attempted in her life to combine her duties as a nun with caring for both of them She also constantly tried to make peace between her father and her brother There are numerous details of a simple dish she would have cooked and sent along in a basket or a garment she would have painstakingly sewn despite her life of extreme poverty and chronic ill health The convent was in bad repair and the nuns did not have any money Galileo freuently helped out financially but the nuns still had to suffer insufficient food heating or anything approaching sanitation Maria made light of her troubles and Galileo was dependent on her loyalty support and strength saying that she had an exuisite mind Although his part of the conversation is missing it can be inferred and they were clearly devoted to one anotherGalileo was born in 1564 and pursued his dream of studying mathematics and philosophy despite his parents' wishes that he become a doctor He taught at the universities of Pisa and Padua but this position seemed to confer little respect because of the subjects he taught However his reputation grew with his startlingly original investigations and discoveries Eventually he secured the patronage of the Medici family Among other things he managed to augment the power of the telescopic lens thus enabling him to study the moon and stars and discovered the first four of Jupiter's moons There were further controversial scientific discoveries when he discovered sunspots He challenged Aristotelian physics and this angered his colleaguesBut the main tragedy of his life stems from the time when Galileo published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems He had thought for a long time that Copernicus was correct in postulating that the Earth revolves around the sun and with Galileo's mathematical skills and the scientific instruments he had invented he was able to establish proof Maria's letters show the wavering stages of approval and disapproval of Galileo's conclusions by the Catholic Church At first his theories were welcomed then seen as a challenge to the Catholic faith; the greatest threat since Martin Luther Eventually the reigning Pope Urban VIII a former friend and supporter deemed that Galileo had to undergo a Trial by the Inuisition in 1633 By now Galileo was in very poor health He was charged that his work was heresy; that the motions of the heavens were for the Holy Fathers of the Church to rule on not him Galileo insisted throughout his gruelling trial possibly involving torture that he was a good Catholic that his faith was true Eventually he was released under a form of house arrest but by now he was impoverished and never really recovered from the experience The descriptions of Galileo's ordeal is set against a backdrop of bubonic plague throughout Europe and the 30 years' war Throughout Maria would care for him offering constant support and prayers cleaning and mending his clothes preparing titbits tonics and medicines to cheer him She transcribed all his notes and never doubted his conclusions or faith She died at 34 of dysentry only months after he had sold his beloved house in Tuscany to move closer to the convent when his sentence had been commuted to house imprisonmentI was surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did The two main characters are vividly brought to life through the description of events and the details which are sometimes uite homely running through the correspondence Galileo's inventions are fascinating to read about; they are described chronologically as they occur Both Galileo's brilliant mind and his conscience shine through this work His struggles to reconcile his scientific findings with his Catholic beliefs are particularly well drawn and poignant although the descriptions of his trial make for harrowing reading Throughout there is the devotion of his daughter who read and commented on his work sometimes adding thoughts of her own She was his closest ally The subheading of this book is A Drama of Science Faith and Love It is a perfect description of the book which itself is a fascinating read
• 
  Brad

  What a spectacular book My advice to you is to violently discard the grossly inferior book you are currently wasting your time with for this one instead Toss it aside like the trash it is This is a far better substitute Do yourself some good instead The mythology of Galileo as truly the first modern scientist is of course both revered and legendary His condemnation by the Church his cannon balls from Pisa Tower and his ingenious improvements on the telescope well known stories to be sure are re told here with fresh insight and clarity Importantly though is that I felt that one can not help but be struck by the contemporary relevance in these stories The truths that science reveals and the unwillingness that a particular ideology or political group exhibits towards accepting those truths are just as damaging today as they were 400 years ago Consider Galileo’s cannon balls the thinking at the time was that the speed of an object in free fall was proportional to its weight Galileo reasoned that it was intuitively wrong to suggest that from a height of 100 feet a 100 pound ball would hit the ground while a 1 pound ball dropped at the same time would have only traveled one foot When he tried the experiment the discrepancy between the two weights was merely a few inches As I read of how some of Galileo’s contemporaries’ refused to accept these discoveries I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the animosity displayed by some toward climate change Just as some are willing to disregard the overwhelming support of whole hypothesis because of a few findings to the contrary so too were Galileo critics willing to disregard his whole hypothesis because of those two inches His response was that they ignored the ninety foot discrepancy the old dogma suggested to focus instead on his two inches Yet today so many are comfortable ignoring the facts of climate change focusing instead on those two inches of debate And just as Galileo’s two inch discrepancy was due to air resistance so too will science address all the complex facets inherent in the vigorous and healthy debate of climate change If it is evolution stem cell therapies projected water shortages or the impending energy crisis so many today are willing to disregard science when it interferes with their comfort We have not only forgotten Galileo we have reduced him to a myth a story only Someone who played with a telescope instead of someone who changed the worldBut in addition to all this perhaps even above all of this the book is a beautiful story of the love between a father and his daughter Through the surviving correspondence of Galileo’s daughter a bright yet reclusive nun we see the esteemed scientist in a whole new way As a person a father rather than an obscure legend Moving and simple and powerful All told this was beautifully done
• 
  Sarah

  After 150 pages I decided if this book didn’t end by smashing the patriarchy I didn’t want to read any And since it would end in 1642 I gave up Say what you will about ‘the times’ it’s impossible to buy the idea that a well off well educated intelligent and self respecting public figure can’t know he’s participating in screwing over half of humanity Back in the days of Galileo the author tells us it was atypical for male academics to marry And so it was with Galileo and his contemporaries who didn’t marry but nevertheless enjoyed living in conjugal union with someone from the grateful lower classes and begetting bastard children with them despite being “devout” Catholics and in Galileo’s case personal friends with the freaking Pope Now if one of your children is a boy you might like Galileo go to the trouble of getting him legitimatized through your political and clerical hypocritical relationships even though he is a sullen and not terribly sharp child If the other children are girls bright and dutiful as they may be put those inconvenient lesser beings in a convent which operates like an adult orphanage a workhouse made up of cast off daughters who live in poverty as they would in any poorhouse where they can labor for the church without further ado and through no choice of their own What is it but a form of white slavery?There aren’t too many books that push my feminist button so bad but I found it all reprehensible And to top it off the daughter in uestion was a fawning and overly loving person with apparently a big forgiving heart that made me want to puke The other daughter spent her days depressed and in the convent infirmary for want of a sharp object uite rightly in my book There should be another “Galileo’s Daughter” devoted to the one who was right in the head If you are really have to know everything about Galileo you’d probably like this book which was not uninteresting As for me enough was enough and thank God it’s over
• 
  Lisa (Harmonybites)

  So given the title you'd think this would be about Galileo's daughter Sister Maria Celeste who he called a woman of exuisite mind singular goodness and most tenderly attached to me Perhaps you might have thought that through her eyes this account is partly based upon and includes several of her letters you might gain insight into the mind of the man Einstein called the father of modern physics indeed of modern science altogether Given she's described of exuisite mind perhaps you thought she might have contributed to his experiments or thinking If you're expecting any of that you're going to be disappointed Really this is a uick reading biography of Galileo and there are several chapters that deal with his life before his daughter enters into the story And given she was a cloistered nun from her teenage years hers was not a life of wide scope or interest aside from her being the daughter of a famous father Her letters though they show a loving daughter who had no doubts about her father's faith don't reveal a remarkable intelligence though that would be hard given the letters in the book are filled with little than such mundane details as grocery and laundry lists and asking Galileo to fix a broken clock What seemed to have animated the book is Sobel's desire to argue there there is no reason to see science and faith as opposed and to present Galileo as a devout and obedient son of the Catholic Church particularly as demonstrated through his loving relationship with a supportive devout daughter dedicated to the religious life The Catholic Church both revered shouldn't be slurred with condemning Galileo according to SobelTechnically however the anti Copernican Edict of 1616 was issued by the Congregation of the Index not by the Church Similarly in 1633 Galileo was tried and sentenced by the Holy Office of the Inuisition not by the Church” Moreover Sobel related the Catholic pontiffs who condoned both rulings didn't invoke papal infallibility Alrighty then that must have consoled Galileo who was forced to renounce the Copernican theory found his books banned was put under house arrest for the rest of his life after dealing with the Inuisition and the threat of being put under torture or even burned at the stake as the Astronomer Bruno had been in 1600 by the Inuisition just decades before The sad thing to me is as Sobel presented it Galileo had done everything he could to follow Church teaching and rulings He submitted his book on Copernican theory to the Church's censor told them to change whatever they wanted to got a license to print it and the Church's imprimatur But the Pope was convinced that Galileo was mocking him personally in the book had him prosecuted and the book appeared in the next Index of Proscribed Books where it would stay for 200 years But we shouldn't blame the Catholic Church Nope it was all just a tragic mutual misunderstanding That all reads to me not so much as apologia as satire yet Sobel does convince me that Galileo truly didn't want a breach with the Church and was a man of faith and science But for me that just makes poignant and disgraceful the bullying of an elderly old man by the machinery of the ChurchIf the book had a strength though it was how lucidly it explained the science and Galileo's discoveries just why he can right be called a father of modern science And after reading some very dense histories lately it was something of a relief to read something easier that you could cut through like a heated knife through butter But I didn't think I got than a rather superficial gloss on Galileo's life and times
• 
  Allie

  DNF around 30% The title of this book is misleading it's really a book about Galileo and only secondarily about his daughter who was clearly the Human Interest Angle to illuminate the life of a Great Man Despite his devout Catholicism Galileo had three illegitimate children with his mistresshousekeeper While Galileo had his son legitimized both daughters were consigned as young girls to a convent where they lived in abject poverty and struggled with poor health He did send occasional gifts to the convent along with his mending and papers for his daughter Maria to transcribe Galileo's correspondence to Maria has been lost so we can't learn how he regarded her However her letters to him survived and are interspersed with chapters about Galileo's life scientific discoveries and the various factions skirmishing for power in the church Most of the letters involve Maria lavishly praising her father abasing herself for her own ignorance thanking him for any small tokens worrying about his health and offering occasional thoughts on his projects While her letters were never self pitying I became increasingly annoyed with Galileo who was too busy staring into the sun and counting spots to properly care for his daughters The book provides a well written overview of Galileo's life and discoveries so if that's your reason for reading you may very well enjoy it Personally I was hoping to read about the life of a 17th century woman involved in science so this was a disappointment
• 
  Becky

  As the daughter of a physicist I couldn't resist this book It is a biography of both Galileo and his older daughter who was a nun in a local monastery Her letters to Galileo are the foundation of the book I enjoyed reading the history of Galileo's trial for heresy and also the day to day events that mostly comprise his daughter's letters A fascinating look into the life of Galileo and 17th century Italy
• 
  Philip

  Galileo Galileo Galileo Figaro MAGNIFICO O O O SCIENCE AND RELIGION My biggest uestion after reading this book is what did Galileo believe?Science has canonized him as one of their patron saints and rightfully so The man was a genius But he was also a good Catholic or at least he appeared to be When the church told him to do something he did itYes the church treated him completely unfairly And when one is arguing against those speaking with the authority of God it's difficult to complain about ignorant laws or the injustice of being charged ex post factoBut throughout it all he apparently maintained some sort of cognitive dissonance Perhaps he didn't buy everything the church was selling but he certainly didn't cast it all off eitherI was surprised to see how many of these men were devoted followers of God Not just Galileo but Copernicus et al Because it seems to me Scientists today make Galileo out to be the enemy of the church and I don't believe he wasDon't take this the wrong way I'm no enemy of Science I'm all for Science But I don't think it's fair to the memory of Galileo to set him up as a propaganda piece Scientists especially should know that the world is much complicated than thatAnd while we're talking about Science it was brought up that Galileo's most enduring discovery wasn't his star gazing It was his use of experimentation Testing and testing and retesting Taking on the word of Aristotle by proving something Sure his discoveries are important but he changed the way we approach problems and that impacts all branches of Science whereas discovering some moons mostly effects astronomyAs for Religion I found it odd that Sobel didn't talk about Luther He gets mentioned a couple times whereas The Thirty Years War gets brought up often Part of the reason the church and when I say the church I'm talking about the Catholic church here not the Protestants they had their own problems at the moment was so hard on Galileo was because its authority had been challenged in The Thirty Years War And yes that's in the time frame but certainly they hadn't forgotten about The 95 Theses That was the catalystEither way the church was fighting an uphill battle with Galileo I imagine one could argue that God was on his side Science at least wasThis brings up one of Galileo's main points Nature cannot contradict the Bible If we see something in nature that contradicts scripture either we aren't looking at it correctly or our interpretation of scripture is incorrect He says Holy Scripture cannot err and the decrees therein contained are absolutely true and and inviolable I should only have added that though Scripture cannot err its expounders and interpreters are liable to err in many ways This is THE paradox of a faith that teaches the infallibility of ScriptureAt the time these claims were edgy no doubt But even so I'd contend Galileo was still a good decent Catholic When the church told him to censor his book he did He blacked out the offending passages Although Sobel adds that he did so with very light strokesThis brings me to some last thoughts dealing with censorshipI heard that Stalin censored the same way He'd outright ban books or he'd have everyone black out offending passagesAnd I know I'm going out on a limb here I know I'm getting away from Galileo but this is what really REALLY worries me about Kindles and e Books and i Pads etc That if someone comes along and wants to censor something with books they have to go one at a time With e books a person can just click and it's gone
• 
  Silvana

  Galileo had a daughter? So what? That uestion may be raised which is understandable Besides all famous people do procreate right? What makes Galileo’s Daughter so significant anyway? Well if you read this book you surely will change your mindDava Sobel again amazed me with her skill in combining history science and human relations into one book Not many authors could do such thing I daresay She successfully wove this story of a brave intelligent resourceful young woman who had a genius as her father and how both of them relied on each other to live in difficult times By the way his daughter was a cloistered nun with the name Maria Celeste But that did not stop her from being her father’s rock Her surviving correspondence with Galileo is the main ingredient used by Sobel to describe the dynamics of this uniue father daughter relationship The contents varied; from her reuest to Galileo to buy her things such as herbs and linens the news update on what was going on in her convent to her consolation for Galileo when he was facing trials in Rome Not only letters apparently but she also made him clothes and medicines It was as though she lived in the same house with him and took care of him Walls and distance were not barriers Imagine if they both had BlackberrysThis book elaborates much about his works including the scandalous Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems which upholds Copernicus’ theory that the earth revolves around the sun which is also a book that reuired almost two centuries to be dropped from the list of banned books by the Congregation of the Holy OfficeNevertheless although they did not have rapidsharemirctorrent those days it did not stop the book from being distributed in Italy and beyond Couriers and diplomatic missions were walking around bringing a copy of Dialogue as they please Galileo was lucky to have so many admirers in Europe including even a few high ranking cardinals who felt enlightened when reading his worksOne thing that bothers me was that Galileo did his best to ensure that Dialogue would not cause any ruckus He used the proper channels consulted to the relevant officials gathered sufficient supports from prominent nobles and even sought an audience with the Pope to discuss the book Nevertheless one could always find a tiny bit of something to be used as incriminating evidence Galileo finally admitted guilty and let himself a frail 69 year old then to be punished Anyway IMHO his punishment was not too depressing House arrest in the residence of a Sienese cardinal who was one of his strong supporters? He could still write received some guests some with the permission from the Papal Office and had correspondence with fellow scientists and family C’mon ‘twas not too bad right?Seriously now I understand that it was still hard for him He had lots of enemies who would love to see him rot miserably The pressure he had to face must have been horrendous Having your ultimate work which took decades in the making – banned and that you could not publish anything ever again must be frustrating as hell For future readers please do not be disheartened from reading the scientific explanation in this book First there are lots of them anyway haha Secondly they would give the readers insight on Galileo’s personal thinking which sometimes could be so intriguing and cheeky at the same timeThe historical account in this book describing the flow of events and characters in that illustrious Renaissance era is truly mesmerizing The interaction between the states and duchies the politics inside the Papal court and even the bubonic plague present a thrilling readBack to Suor Maria Celeste Galileo described her as a woman of exuisite mind singular goodness and most tenderly attached to him I guess he realized that she was his greatest treasure and would be thankful if people could pay her a proper homage when thinking about how great a scientist he was The Father of modern physics would not ‘exist’ without her period This is true testament to the adage “Behind a great man there's a great woman” am I correct? ;
• 
  Jean

  This is a well researched historical novel about the relationship between Galileo and his eldest daughter Virginia Galilei 1600 1634 Apparently Galileo did not marry Marina Gamba of Venice even though they had 3 children together The son Vincenzo was legitimized and studied law at the University of Pisa The two girls were deemed to be un marriageable so were sent off to become nuns when they were 11 years old Virginia became Suor Maria Celeste and her sister Livia became Suor Archangela They were placed in the San Matteo Convent Arcetri of the Poor Clares order Sobel based the story on the letters written by Suor Maria Celeste and according to Sobel the letters from Suor Maria were saved by Galileo but his letters to her were destroyed on her death by the Mother Superior to protect the honor of the Order because of the conviction of Galileo by the Church Sobel also researched the Vatican records but she presented the delicate religious issues by stating only the facts She did not go into much detail about the works of Galileo as there are well known and the book was about his relationship with the daughter Suor Maria Celeste died in 1634 of dysentery Sobel portrayed her as an intelligent woman well able to discuss Galileo's work with him with great understanding She apparently proofed some of his manuscripts I was surprised to learn that she is buried with him in his tomb The book has relevance today as science is still under attack by political and religious fundamentalist even thought this is not the year 1600 This is an audio book and George Guidall did his usual magnificent job narrating the story If you are interested in science or history this book is for you