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Summary: A Wonderful History
Review: Sobel's acheivement in "Galileo's Daughter" is weaving a imposing history of Church politics, the surgence of science, and the simple yet powerful love between father and daughter into an illuminating story. We see Galileo as the victim of the Church's hold on the dissemination of science, and his daughter, a cloistered nun who is powerless to help him. Yet, it is the letters they share that help Galileo through his inquisition and imprisonment. Although somewhat lengthy in certain parts, Sobel ultimately gives the reader a much broader sense of the world that Galileo -- and his daughter -- lived in.
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Summary: Enlightening and Sad
Review: What a wonderful topic, beautifully written.
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Summary: Genetically-Acquired Grey Matter
Review: If evidence were needed that daughter inherits their fathers' intelligence, this book gives it. Galilleo, for all his brilliance, never had the resources to sustain a family household, nor to provide dowry for this daughters, and fate thus condemned them to a convent's cell. The elder of his daughters turns out to have been Galilleo's closest confidante, and their correspondence sustained him throughout his heresy trials. The book devotes more or less equal time to the career of Gallileo himself and to his dealings with his daugher. Strangely enough, only the daughter's letters survive: evidently his replies were destroyed, probably by an overzealous Mother Superior after Gallileo was condemned as a heretic. The modern reader might ask why his daughter, a virtual employee of the very institution that was persecuting her father so vindictively, did not quit in protest: but the contemporary mindset, in which we are so thoroughly drawn, would never see things that way.
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is an outstanding novel about the legendary Galileo and his life. Not having a passion for Galileo and knowledge limited to what I had learned in high school prior to this reading, I chose this book solely on the basis of the human interest element. I had never heard that he had a daughter much less an enduring record of such a relationship.
What I found most fascinating was the brilliance of Galileo and his inventions. Although he was criticized and later penalized by the Catholic Church he devoted his life to understanding the world and proving his hypotheses through his numerous experiments and inventions. His life is truly amazing as is the background we get from Sobel about Italy and Italian culture at that time.
The relationship that is established between himself and his daughter Suor Maria Celeste is clearly evidenced through the letters that she sends to her father. Unfortunately, there are no surviving letters from Galileo himself. How poignant are her inquiries about her father's work, health and home arrangements. It is clear from these letters that she holds her father in the highest esteem and that he returns this affection for her. Very interesting in itself is her life in the Poor Clare Convent and the trials she must endure in her life up until her untimely death from dysentery at age 34.
I had the opportunity to see the author, Dava Sobel, speak in my community and she is a wonderful speaker. Her sheer determination to write this book was amazing. She learned Italian so that she could translate the letters! If you ever have a chance to see her lecture you won't be disappointed. An outstanding book with a goldmine of information that will inspire you.
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Summary: If only I loved my father this much...I could know true joy!
Review: The author approaches Galileo's story in the most wonderful way. She uses the letters his daughter Sister Marie Celeste, wrote to him throughout her life to weave his story. Through the grace of history the letters have survived although none of his letters to her remain.This technique provides a glimpse of Galileo as a wonderful devoted father. His humanity and love of life come through the text in a manner that is more effective any reader could hope. We learn much about Galileo and his time. Of course his conflict with the Catholic Church are told. But much much more is shown. This is not simply a retelling of facts. It is a retelling of the story through the eyes of someone who loved him as much as any daughter has ever loved her father. I say this without exaggeration. I wish I could express my own love of my father as Galileo's daughter did. This reading has given me something to strive for..And it isn't just a bit of genius.
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Summary: Renaissance Italy.
Review: Though the name of this book is Galileo's Daughter, this book is mostly about Galileo himself, his life and his new and exeptional way of seeing the world. Alot of it is seen through the letters written to him by his daughter though. The book is a perfect example of a book about popular science written in a way to give the reader a full story about a man and his life. And his daughter. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is the father of the telescope. Galileos's thoughts were not at all welcomed in his world, and it is incredible to read about the way this man give his live for his work. Many books have been written about Galileo, but this is the first time we meet his daughter, soer Maria Celeste. Unfortunately Galileos letters to his daughter have not been saved. But Maria Celeste's letters are a treasure, showing an intelligent daughter supporting her father. Together with helping him with alot of practical thinghs, living for making the life comfortable for him, she also helps him with his work, among other things helps him in his writing of the masterpiece, Dialoges. The book should have been more about Maria Celeste and her life. We are always in need for more books about women in the history. Maria Celeste died at the age of 33, after a life with too much work and too little sleep. Dava Sobel has done a good job in showing us glimpses of her life, the life of a woman who has had influence on the history, though deep in the shadows of the historical highlights. I want to pay tribute to Maria Celeste and all other women sharing her conditions. Britt Arnhild Lindland
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Summary: Phenominal Read
Review: The way the author pieces together the history and humanity is like no other book I have ever read. Gallileo's Daughter paints for the author the most complete picture of renaissance Italy currently available, all while crafting a heartwrenching story of a father and his devoted daughter.
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Summary: A memoir of history, science, and love
Review: Dava Sobel has crafted Galileo's Daughter to be a brilliant, deftly woven memoir which joins together a history of one of the greatest scientific minds of the world with the everyday life of his daugther, Maria Celeste, a nun in Florence, Italy. Even more, the book shows the conflicts between church and faith that continue to this day, and how one faithful Catholic resolved the issues for himself. Despite the title, the story is one of Galileo himself. Sobel chronicles Galileo's scientific ideas, and how they develop as new technology booms and enables him to make brilliant discoveries. Through his daughter, we come to see a more personal side of Galileo - that which worries about his children, experiences the aches and pains of age, and enjoys homemade candies and well-sewn shirts. Where this book is the most successful is in its telling of the trial of Galileo. Sobel does a fantastic job portraying the toll this event takes on both Galileo himself, and on his worried and committed daughter. The ending, too, convinces us of Galileo's respect and admiration for Maria Celeste.
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Summary: Compelling start, halting finish
Review: The first half of Dava Sobel's "Galileo's Daughter" is, in a word, gripping. Especially enticing to people interested in history, literature, and science, the first half of this book is a slice of life, albeit an extraordinary one. It also is a lesson in culture/religion (inseparable in the Catholic Church of the time), and its battle with burgeoning scientific knowledge. The contradiction in this book is that at the moment when Galileo's life should become the most interesting, the book loses momentum. The backbone of the memoir, the letters of Galileo's daughter (a cloistered nun), revealed little to me beyond the narrow scope of the more mundane aspects of life. Finances, illness, poverty. Perhaps this is what interests some readers; I will admit it was eye-opening to learn about the way life was lived in the 17th century. In anticipating this book, I was looking for more insight into Galileo beyond the history books. What I got, for example, was a painstaking explanation of how to deal with wine left to spoil in a cask.
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Summary: A Journey to a Different Time, A Different World.
Review: Galileo lived in a different time, really in a different world. And to understand what Galileo did, and didn't do, Sobel transports us back into this reality so we can appreciate the magnificence of his accomplishments and his failures. Italy was a country in name only. The plague was a natural and common occurrence, not a historical footnote. The Roman Catholic Church still banned books, held inquisitions, and occupied significant political power. And people, lived, and died, on the whim of a disgruntled Doge, a proud Prince, or a remote Emperor. As a practical matter, this meant that hundreds of people, during outbreaks of the plague, died randomly in the streets. Bodies were burnt, if the authorities got to them before family or friends tried to provide a proper Christian burial. If the authorities were too late to stop the first burial, they usually were able to burn the family member who would die of plague later, with no one left to bury them. In the grim alternative that they caught the families burying the dead, those caught could be tortured as an example to others. "Out of necessity" professors would will "their own mortal remains to the university, to save the anatomist the bother of pillaging the hospitals or begging the bodies for criminals condemned to hang." (p173) Even so, dissections and autopsies were illegal, as the human body was sacred and cutting it up would be cutting up a work of God. Legal travel between different regions in Italy could only occur, if one had proper papers and permission to do so. New ideas, especially in books, had to be "screened" by the inquisition to make sure that they did not contradict Church doctrine, even as International and religious rivalry made new ideas from other countries highly suspect. Combined with the high mortality rates of this time, as a practical matter this meant years of waiting before new discoveries could officially be promulgated. Enter Galileo. A devout Catholic and a faithful follower of the Church. Galileo was inspired by another Catholic, Copernicus, who published his own works on his deathbed. Galileo, in the Medieval world of 17th Century Italy, would lay the foundations for the modern world which we live today. Given the strange world and horrible handicaps (political and religious) that he endured, and Galileo's accomplishments become even more dramatic. Sobel explains all of the above, and more. We also learn about Galileo's relationship with his son and his daughters. His daughters, in particular, are often mentioned as we learn in detail about convent life (they were both nuns) of this time and age. We also learn about his financial problems, and successes, his relationships with the Pope and bishops, and somewhat about the history of his father's successes and failures as well. At the same time, Sobel explains the state of science, before and after Galileo, while explaining some of his concepts and discoveries (including his errors). My only criticisms, if any, of this book are the details at this point in the story. Starting off as a social history of the man and his times, the book becomes a little bogged down with the science and its explanations. Given the scope of its content, however, this is a minor criticism - at best. This book saught to explain Galileo and his times, and it suceeded. Well written, with a poetic flair, Galileo's Daughter, should be enjoyable to any historical intellectual.
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