Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (1999)

I read this book for one of my book clubs, but I did pick it to read among a list of choices because I thought it was going to be about Galileo's interesting daughter who was intelligent and contributed to the world in some grand way just as her father did. I was wrong. The book is all about Galileo and his life, but does include some letters from his daughter on such exciting matters as sewing a tablecloth for him or collars for her brother or to ask for money for a cell of her own as she was a nun in a convent, which is where illegitimate daughters were sent with their dowries since they couldn't marry. He had two illegitimate daughters, Marie Celeste, whom he corresponded with and Arcangela and one illegitimate son Vincenzio who was made legitimate. He couldn't marry the mother because she was of a different class, but she would eventually marry after Vincenzio was born.

Marie Celeste's letters were boring to the extreme with her talk of sewing and prayer and her need for money for various things. Marie Celeste's life was I suppose interesting for a nun in that she while she mostly spent it praying and sewing, she also worked in the apothecary shop and teaching Gregorian chants. Her sister did very little we are led to believe. But she did not help people like Mother Theresa did or do anything completely worthwhile with her life. There were intelligent women at that time like the Grand Duke of Milan's grandmother who argued with Galileo himself over his Compernician thoughts about a heliocentric worldview. But Marie Celeste, who read her father's work because she recopied it for him since she had lovely penmanship never once discussed his work with him. His daughter Arcangela was mentally unbalanced either because she was being forced into the life of being a nun or because she truly was crazy. And his son Vincenzio was a pain in the ass who was always letting him down.

Galileo was very progressive for his time and both lauded for his scientific findings and hated for going against Aristotle who reigned supreme for some. He also had to deal with the Church and going against Church doctrine. Other scientists in other countries at the time weren't so hampered and made great strides forward. But it was his work Dialogues that really got him in trouble. It was approved by the Church to be published and was a play about a man who espouses the Copernican thought and one, a stupid one who espouses the Aristotelian point of view and Galileo who is the narrator. It came out to great praise, but then a group of people began to hate it and say it was heretical. The Pope Urban VIII who was on good terms with Galileo had been raked over the coals over the way he was handling the Thirty Years War and he didn't need another scandal so while he didn't read the book, he listened to others who had and believed them when they said it was heretical and brought Galileo to trial.

Frankly, this book just wasn't that interesting. I'm not interested in religious matters or complex scientific ones. And I was feeling pretty pissed and that I had been lied to about what the book was about. I was expecting a book about his daughter and instead got a book about Galileo which I wouldn't have picked up if I'd known that was what it was about. I give it two stars out of five stars.

Quotes

As he had once heard the late Vatican librarian Cesare Cardinal Varonio remark, the Bible was a book about how one goes to Heaven—not how Heaven goes.

-Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter p 65) ( )

Working from her letters to Galileo and from other records of his life, Sobel has created a biography of his daughter, who was a nun. We learn what her life was like and also reprise her father's life, his discoveries and his persecution by the Catholic Church. Their story is a powerful reminder of the importance of fighting for truth, scientific and other truths. We do not have his letters to his daughter; they are assumed to have been destroyed at her death by those who ran the nunnery, but her letters to him show a loving and intellectual relationship between daughter and father.

Did you know that when Galileo was being tried his daughter in a covenant and they wrote weekly letter? When she was discovered she burnt most of the letters but these are what were found years later. ( )

study of the letters between Galileo and his daughter who is in a convent. Articulates something about what life was like back then, the unbelievable limitations on everyone, and women especially. ( )

A primeira acção que tomei quando terminei de ler o livro 'LONGITUDE' foi dirigir-me à biblioteca onde o havia requisitado e procurar por mais livros de Dava Sobel. Pronto, não foi exactamente "a primeira acção" que tomei, mas esteve bastante próximo. O primeiro livro deixara-me com vontade de ler mais e essa ânsia foi saciada com este 'A FILHA DE GALILEU'.

A história de Galileu não me era nova, aprendera sobre ele nas aulas de História, mas o retrato que nos é aqui apresentado vai um pouco além disso. Tal como 'LONGITUDE' parecia um livro técnico mesclado de romance, assim 'A FILHA DE GALILEU' apresenta-se como uma biografia romanceada.

Não sei se será essa a abordagem habitual de Dava Sobel - apresentar biografias e temas científicos vestidos de ficção -, mas confesso que sou bem capaz de me habituar a isso. Para mim, qualquer forma pode ser a ideal para se fazer passar uma mensagem, desde que a mensagem passe.

'LONGITUDE' é a vida de Galileu Galilei contada a partir das cartas que ele recebia da filha. O retrato é inspirador e comovente e faz-nos pensar quão mais espantoso poderia ele ser se estas conversas entre pai e filha tivessem sobrevivido na íntegra ao tempo e aos homens. ( )