Galileo's Daughter

A Pleasant Surprise I was expecting this book to be historical fiction like Phillipa Gregory or Elizabeth Chadwick write. However, this book was written by a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel, who was fascinated by Galileo and the relationship he had with his daughter. There is an extensive bibliography at the end that makes it apparent that the author had acce. "Context" according to Richard E. Moser. A fascinating look behind the scenes of Galileo's life and his crusade for the truth of the Copernican model of the universe and for scientific facts in general. The inclusion extensive quotes from correspondence to and from one of his daughters makes this history feel particularly personal and intimate.Although I suspect not unique a. Flori said Absolutely Fascinating. Truly a must read.. If you haven't read about Galileo since the typical short historical introduction gained in high school, as I have, this book will be truly eye opening. The life of this scientist, astronomer and philosopher is full of intrigue and drama fit for a work of fiction. It is unbelievable that Galileo was able to accomplish so much given hi

As Sobel notes, "It is difficult today to see the Earth at the center of the Universe. Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. While Galileo tangled with the Church, Maria Celeste--whose adopted name was a tribute to her father's fascination with the heavens--provided moral and emotional support with her frequent letters, approving of his work because she knew the depth of his faith. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubo

Filled with human drama and scientific adventure, Galileo's Daughter is an unforgettable story.Praise for Galileo's Daughter : "Sobel shows herself a virtuoso at encapsulating the history and the politics of science. Her descriptions of Galileo's ideasare pithy, vivid, and intelligible."-Wall Street Journal. Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has crafted a biography that dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishments of a mythic figure whose early-seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion-the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics-indeed of modern science altogether." It is also a stunning portrait of Galileo's daughter, a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me."Moving between Galileo's grand public life and Maria Celeste's sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity's perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. During that same time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty Years' War tipped fortunes across Europe, Galileo sought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a