Galileo and daughter: ‘Distance, seclusion, and the Inquisition’
By Dana Lorien Fey
Staff Writer

The sheer scope of the genre of the historical novel spreads out before the reader like so many stars in the night sky. None, however, are so brilliant as the new publication, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love, by Dava Sobel.

This novel is wonderfully written.

Sobel, author of critically acclaimed historical novel Longitude, offers a rare glimpse into the hearts of the characters brings to life the 17th century Italy of Galileo and his oldest daughter, Sister Maria Celeste.

Based on lives of Galileo and Maria Celeste, and highlighted by the 124 surviving letters that they exchanged throughout their lives, this novel is a notch above other historical texts. The abundant description and attention to detail mark Sobel as one of the more gifted recently published authors if history.

The story begins with the birth of Galileo Galilei in Medici-era Italy. Son of a tradesman, Galileo supported his extended family through his teaching and writing from his teens until the end of his life. One of those rare individuals who would become a legend in his own time as well as to the ages after, the book follows his early education, his relationship with and devotion to his three illegitimate children, his meteoric rise to fame, and his tragic persecution by a Pope who had once admired and respected him as a scientist and counted him a good friend.

The book also follows in detail the life of Suor Maria Celeste, who, according to Sobel, took after her father in many ways.

The text provides an insightful look at the daily life as well as the role and the options, the duties and the obligations of women in the 17th century. Maria Celeste must take the veil in the Order of the Poor Clares, because she is an illegitimate daughter and, as such, has no chance of marriage. There she takes the name “Celeste” in honor of her father’s astronomical accomplishments.

Once within the walls of the convent from which she would never set foot outside for the remainder of her life, Maria Celeste applies herself to the dual tasks of praying and the support of her convent. The nuns managed to keep their convent functioning, and avoided starvation, through selling foodstuffs such as candied citrus fruits to the local families, mending of linens and clothing, and donations from well-off patrons. Maria Celeste becomes the primary apothecary in the convent and tends to the ills of her fellow sisters, as well as preparing salves and ointments for the surrounding population. As this was a period during which Italy had several outbreaks of the Black Death, she often sent remedies to her father that were thought to ward off the plague.

Devoted to her father throughout her life, it has been speculated by Sobel that if she had been in a social position that would have allowed for her to receive a more comprehensive education, she might have been one of the most clever women of her time. Both characters are fully developed by Sobel as personalities in their own right and yet their important connectedness is not discounted. The mutual devotion of daughter and father lasts through the trials of distance, seclusion, and the Inquisition.

In addition to the tale of father and daughter, the historical backdrop of this book seethes with political tension, social revolution, and the break between science and religion that has persisted down to the present age. Galileo’s Daughter is a wonderfully engaging and well-written book following the lives of two of the people who were there when the way that Europe thought about the universe changed.