Galileo's Daughter Speaks. - Review - book review

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. By Dava Sobel. Walker & Company, New York, 1999. 420 pp. Hardcover, $27.

"The day after his sister Virginia's funeral," author Dava Sobel says near the book's beginning, "the already world-renowned scientist Galileo Galilei received [[ldots]] the first of 124 surviving letters from the once-voluminous correspondence he carried on with his elder daughter. She alone of Galileo's three children mirrored his own brilliance, industry; and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante."

Two major surprises, at least for this reviewer, are contained within this tome: the first is that Galileo had three children by the same woman whom he never married. The second-this reviewer, in all fairness to the author, cannot divulge. Suffice to say it may be found near the end of the book. In between those two tantalizing tidbits of information are numerous other aspects of Galileo's life and reactions to them by his eldest daughter, Virginia.

Galileo had placed Virginia, and a younger sister, Livia, both of a tender age, in a cloistered Sisters of Poor Clare Convent of San Matteo, south of his home in Florence, Tuscany. Both girls became nuns. But it's Virginia, who took the religious name Suor Maria Celeste upon becoming a nun, and her father that this story centers on.

Galileo's daughter's correspondence is printed throughout the book. In these missives from her convent, she worries about her father's welfare, what he is doing, and generally everything that is going on outside. Besides those cares, this nun looks after her own younger sister, now named Suor Arcangala, who resides in the same convent, and her young brother, Vincenzio, who lives elsewhere.

Suor Maria Celeste's letters sparkle with daughterly and sisterly devotion. With what little time that remains after her religious duties, she cleans, sews, preserves, cooks, writes letters for other nuns, and does several other tasks for the convent, for her own sister, and for her brother.

The book deals with Galileo's scientific experiments and resulting books. His Vatican trial by the infamous Inquisition is also covered in detail, as well as his religious, political, and academic friendships all over the world. The bubonic plague threat is also discussed, along with Galileo's other health problems and his additional tribulations.

The tome describes how the Church persecuted and prosecuted Galileo for appearing to embrace the heretical Copernican concept that Earth goes around the Sun and not vice versa. The pontiff at that time, Pope Urban VIII, a former so-called friend of Galileo's and a science buff, pulled the strings behind the scenes at Galileo's trial. Like some of his predecessors and successors, this pope proved to be self-aggrandizing. Of course, he was protecting the Roman Catholic Church, which was still defensive about the Protestant Reformation and was facing challenges from scientists. The Inquisition had come to the fore again as a result.

Galileo knew full well what the Church's feelings were about the Copernican concept, and went to great lengths to make certain his book, which discussed Copernican ideas as theories only, could be published with the Church's approval. And he did get that permission. Nonetheless, his many enemies, who grew jealous of his scientific successes and fame, viciously turned upon him.

The scientist was found guilty of teaching a disavowed and heretical doctrine. His book was banned, being placed on the Vatican's prohibited books list known as the Index. He was sentenced to say specific psalms from the Bible for several years on certain holy days and to remain under house arrest, initially in Rome, later in Siena, and lastly in Arcetri, close by his daughter's convent.

Though allowed to visit Suor Maria Celeste, he was not allowed elsewhere nor supposed to have visitors who would discuss science and philosophy.

The nun's reactions to all that befell her father fill the book, and she continued to see to his needs. In return, he helped fulfill his daughter's and the convent's numerous needs. Sadly, Suor Maria Celeste passed away in 1634, at age 33, from a minor illness made worse by the lack of attention she devoted to herself. Her father llved on for another eight years. His grief over her loss, both as a parent and as the receiver of all her loving care, knew no bounds. But he struggled on without her.

His later years were hindered by illnesses and blindness. Still, his interest in scientific matters continued. He hired a young assistant, Vincenzio Viviani, who read aloud to the old man from scholarly works. And despite the Vatican punishment, Galileo met at his home with other scientists and friendly church officials often.

During those years, he also worked on another book, Two New Sciences, later to be renamed, having nothing to do with Copernicus or any heresy. Yet the Church refused Galileo permission to have this new work published. He managed to skirt that problem by having it printed in Holland, a country less under the Vatican's thumb. Galileo died at age 77 in 1642. Pope John Paul II declared publicly just 350 years later in 1992 that the scientist had been correct all along.