Galileo's daughter : a historical memoir of science, faith, and love Cover Image

Galileo's daughter : a historical memoir of science, faith, and love / Dava Sobel.

Summary:

"The son of a musician, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) tried at first to enter a monastery before engaging the skills that made him the foremost scientist of his day. Though he never left Italy, his inventions and discoveries were heralded around the world. Most sensationally, his telescopes allowed him to reveal a new reality in the heavens and to reinforce the astounding argument that the Earth moves around the Sun. For this belief, he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and forced to spend his last years under house arrest. Of Galileo's three illegitimate children, the eldest best mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante. Born Virginia in 1600, she was thirteen when Galileo placed her in a convent near him in Florence, where she took the most appropriate name of Suor Maria Celeste. Her loving support, which Galileo repaid in kind, proved to be her father's greatest source of strength throughout his most productive and tumultuous years. Her presence, through letters which Sobel has translated from their original Italian and woven into the narrative, graces her father's life now as it did then. Galileo's Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment of a mythic figure whose seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion. 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 being overturned." -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 0802713432
ISBN: 9780802713438
ISBN: 0802713432
ISBN: 9780802713438
ISBN: 0140280553
ISBN: 9780140280555
Physical Description: 420 pages ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Walker & Company, 1999.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:	Part 1 To Florence -- [I] She who was so precious to you 3 -- [II] This grand book the universe 13 -- [III] Bright stars speak of your virtues 25 -- [IV] To have the truth seen and recognijed 37 -- [V] In the very face of the sun 49 -- [VI] Observant executrix of God's commands 59 -- [VII] Malice of my persecutors 71 -- [VIII] Conjecture here among shadows 84 -- Part 2 On Bellosguardo -- [IX] How our father is favored 99 -- [X] To busy my self in your service 110 -- [XI] What we require above all else 122 -- [XII] Because of our jeal 133 -- [XIII] Through my memory of their eloquence 143 -- [XIV] A small and trifling body 153 -- [XV] On the right path, by the grace of God 162 -- [XVI] Tempest of our many torments 175 -- Part 3 In Rome -- [XVII] While seeking to immortalije your fame 187 -- [XVIII] Since the Lord chastises us with these whips 197 -- [XIX] Hope of having you always near 206 -- [XX] That I should be begged to publish such a work 216 -- Part 4 In Care of the Tuscan Embassy, Villa Medici, Rome -- [XXI] How anxiously I live, awaiting word from you 231 -- [XXII] In the chanbers of the Holy Office of the Inguisition 242 -- [XXIII] Jainglorious anbition, pure ignorance, and inadvertence 255 -- [XXIV] Faithvested in the miraculous Madonna of Jmpruneta 264 -- [XXV] Judgment passed on your book and your person 273 -- Part 5 At Siena -- [XXVI] Not knowing how to refuse him the keys 285 -- [XXVII] Terrible destruction on the feast of San Lorenjo 295 -- [XXVIII] Recitation of the penitential psalms 306 -- [XXIX] Book of life, or, Aprophet accepted in his own land 316 -- Part 6 From Arcetri -- [XXX] My soul and its longing 331 -- [XXXI] Until I have this from your lips 340 -- [XXXII] As I struggle to understand 348 -- [XXXIII] Memory of the sweetnesses 357 -- In Galileo's Time 369 -- Florentine Weights, Measures, Currency 375 -- Appreciation 394.
Target Audience Note:	1530L Lexile