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mariesiduri 's review for:
This is probably one of the best books I've read for a long time, both in subject matter and in writing.
The title is something of misnomer as the narrative of the book follows the life of the scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). That’s OK. He led an interesting life even if it ended sadly.
The daughter of the title, born out of wedlock in 1600 to Marina Gamba and Galileo, was named Virginia. Galileo decided both she and her younger sister were “unmarriageable” because of their illegitimacy and had them enter a convent as teen-agers where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Virginia took the religious name Maria Celeste--an appropriate name, given where Galileo was peering. Livia took the name Arcangela. A younger son was declared legitimate by fiat, later married and had a family.
Suor Maria Celeste’s letters from 1623 to 1633 (roughly five month before her death) to her father survived among Galileo’s effects, but none of his letters to her have survived. Author Dava Sobel states that they were apparently burned or buried by the mother abbess after her cell was cleaned out following her death in 1634 because of the stain of heresy that surrounded Galileo, who was by this time under house arrest for advocating the idea that the earth rotates the sun.
Please read full review here
The title is something of misnomer as the narrative of the book follows the life of the scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). That’s OK. He led an interesting life even if it ended sadly.
The daughter of the title, born out of wedlock in 1600 to Marina Gamba and Galileo, was named Virginia. Galileo decided both she and her younger sister were “unmarriageable” because of their illegitimacy and had them enter a convent as teen-agers where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Virginia took the religious name Maria Celeste--an appropriate name, given where Galileo was peering. Livia took the name Arcangela. A younger son was declared legitimate by fiat, later married and had a family.
Suor Maria Celeste’s letters from 1623 to 1633 (roughly five month before her death) to her father survived among Galileo’s effects, but none of his letters to her have survived. Author Dava Sobel states that they were apparently burned or buried by the mother abbess after her cell was cleaned out following her death in 1634 because of the stain of heresy that surrounded Galileo, who was by this time under house arrest for advocating the idea that the earth rotates the sun.
Please read full review here