Galileo’s Daughter, written by Dava Sobel

A book review by Maribeth Griffin
Associate Director of Housing
Western Connecticut State University

I knew about Galileo before I read this book. He’s the guy who dropped the stuff off the Leaning Tower of Pisa and proved that a bowling ball and a golf ball, when dropped at the same time, hit the ground at the same time. And, like most people, that was enough to know. How surprising it was, then, to read of Galileo’s life and times in this lovely book by Dava Sobel. Ms. Sobel lets us walk through Galileo’s life, guided along the way by pieces of letters from his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste.

What a time it was! Galileo, Shakespeare, and Miguel Cervantes – all born the year that Michelangelo died. Galileo’s father, Vincenzio, was a musician and Galileo’s first teacher. Vincenzio studied music theory, at the time considered a branch of mathematics, and challenged many of the prevailing musical beliefs and attitudes of the day. In fact, Vincenzio’s own writings were censored and unpublished at times because he challenged prevailing beliefs – an odd foreshadowing of things to come for Galileo.

Galileo attended university, but never graduated. Very early on, he became renowned for his writings and inventions. The first invention to bring him fame (and some monetary success) was a geometric and military compass. The manufacture of the compass brought him a modicum of money, but Galileo, ever the entrepreneur, also charged people 4 times the price of the compass to learn how to use it!

Obtaining several professorships at universities throughout the area, Galileo lectured and wrote as well. The Medici family were patrons, and he enjoyed a close relationship with many of the leaders of the Catholic church. These relationships were of great importance to Galileo, who was a very pious and devout Catholic. His eventual troubles with the Church began when his belief in and subsequent attempts to prove Copernicus’ theories about the relationship of the earth and the sun were compounded by an intensely unpopular war being waged by the Pope.

In essence, Church law stated that biblically, the earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun, stars, moons and other planets revolved around it. Copernicus and Galileo believed (and for all intents and purposes proved) that the sun was actually the center of our solar system, and that the earth revolved around it. At the same time, the Church was being challenged on many fronts due to an unpopular and costly war, and the Pope needed to find a distraction in order to draw attention away from the fighting – Galileo, enormously popular at the time, provided such a distraction.

Trying to live by his faith, Galileo attempted to convince the Church of the correctness of his position, and failing that, he tried to gain the right to publish his research so that people could make informed decisions about what they believed to be true. He was subsequently tried by the Holy Inquisition. The Church halted the printing and distribution of his writings, both the controversial Dialogues (which discussed the arrangement of the solar system) and his prior writings. As a result of the trial, the aged, blind, and mainly alone Galileo spent his final days under house arrest.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself where the title Galileo’s Daughter came from. Galileo and his daughter, Virginia (Suor Maria Celeste), enjoyed an almost 10 year correspondence. Maria Celeste became a nun at age 14, living just a short distance from her father. Although convent rules did not permit them direct contact, Maria Celeste continued to perform duties any eldest daughter might have been expected to perform from home. She made clothes for her father, prepared food for him, and even acted as pharmacist to care for his many maladies (she was an apothecary at the convent).

Ms. Sobel says of Suor Maria Celeste:

She alone of Galileo’s three children mirrored his brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities, became his confidante…even after she professed a life of prayer and penance, she remained devoted to Galileo as though to a patron saint… [that devotion] only to intensify over the ensuing decade as her father grew old, fell more frequently ill, pursued his singular research nevertheless, and published a book that brought him to trial by the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

Maria Celeste’s letters are linked, together with Ms. Sobel’s other exhaustive research, to present a portrait of Galileo, not just as the mythical creature we know him as, but as a man torn between the righteousness of his discoveries concerning the world around him and the devotion to the faith he had trusted and believed in his entire life.

Galileo’s Daughter is a love story. It speaks to us of the love of discovery. It tells the tale of a daughter’s love for her father and of his for her. It conveys to us the desire to remain faithful when everything you believe in conspires against you. It chronicles the struggle of the human spirit. Galileo’s Daughter is an incredible tale of an amazing man living in a confounding time.

Few of us would take the time to read any of Galileo’s writings for the sake of reading them. However, Galileo’s Daughter allows us to learn about the man, his discoveries, his writings, his time, and those who loved him. If you have even the slightest scientific curiosity, if you like history, or if you simply love a good story, I highly recommend this book.