Galileo's Daughter Summary

The book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel follow the life story of famed scientist, mathematician and philosopher Galileo Galilei and his daughter Virginia Gamba, later renamed Suor Maria Celeste Galilei when she became a nun of the Convent of San Matteo. Throughout Galileo’s life, it had been as a battle between science and religion where Galileo stood in the thin line in between the warring giants. Religion shorted the range of influence of science by professing heresy towards the few that stood up. Galileo, being a devout Christian, had to choose carefully or risk not only reputation loss but also torture and a ban from ever publishing a book again. However, the pull of scientific discovery for Galileo forced this type of decisions continuously. Galileo’s faith changed every discovery put to paper by him in not so subtle ways.

Being the devout

Christian he was, Galileo made sure that all scientific discoveries did not in any way conflict with the Holy Scriptures and the pope. The book made by him were critiqued by a cardinal and any changes recommended was feverishly worked on. However, he believed in his discoveries extremely and would even go against his faith to lecture on what he believes to be true. Such would be his belief in the helio-centric model of the world with was turned down by the cardinals and once by the then-current Pope Urban VIII. The denial by the pope ended with Galileo being convicted of heresy. The book by Galileo named Dialogue of Galileo Galilei, Lycean Special Mathematician of the University of Pisa and Philosopher and Chief Mathematician of the Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany. Where, in the meetings of four days, there is a discussion concerning the two Chief Systems of the World, Ptolemaic and Copernican, Propounding inconclusively the philosophical and physical reasons as much for one side as for the other had the preface and the ending revised to meet the pope’s demand that the book does not go against the Holy Scriptures and that the Copernican system is only a hypothesis.
The gender separation between Suor Maria Celeste Galilei and Galileo Galilei played a significant role in the lives of both father and daughter. During that time in human history, women were generally regarded as the servants in the house while men were the heads of the house. In the male-dominated world, women were treated lowly and most aristocrats and such either wed them into a respectable family or entered them into a convent to serve the Lord’s wishes. Education for women were not approved of and most families faced social ruins in the pursuit of such. However, Suor Maria was unusually advanced in some aspects of medicine and cared for him with a heavy love.
For Galileo’s part, nothing was really restricted to him outside of the restriction of the church.

The dowries of his daughters were paid, although not to another family for their marriage, but instead to the Convent of San Matteo for their admissions and choice to stay together. The discoveries made by him were of such importance and radical thought that if he were to be a women in the male-dominated world, he wouldn’t have been allowed to finish his studies far before they would have dismissed his thoughts as foolish.

Historiography, the study of historical writings, specifically the changes and differences in the writings, fully colors the author’s narrative and analysis of the events. Nearly every chapter begins with a letter from Suor Maria indicating the changes in time and what is happening around both her and her father. The narrative written by Dava Sobel followed the path that the letters had left and all aspects of the letters were discussed thoroughly. Many speculations were not made and most of the facts, if not all of them, were from historical backgrounds that can be traced back to the

writings.
The analysis of various writings of equally varying importance was greatly influenced by the author’s use of historiography. Every writing was analyzed and then further analyzed once a new document came into play. For example, on page 123, a rule of Saint Clare from chapter eight is shown to state that “[t]he Sisters shall not appropriate anything to themselves, neither a house nor a place nor anything whatsoever; and as strangers and pilgrims in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, let them confidently send for alms.” This rule, taken from an ancient historical writing, states why the Pope during that time, Pope Gregory IX, allowed them to stay in nearly extreme poverty. Thus, both the narrative and the analysis have been led through by the author’s use of historiography.