Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel: book review

The title is a misnomer, for Galileo's Daughter (2000) is really about the famous Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). His daughter, Virginia, is mentioned in reference to her unfailing support for her father. Galileo is continually in poor health, espouses controversial theories of astronomy and is brought to trial by the Inquisition.

Galileo was, as Einstein called him, the “father of modern physics”. His telescope inventions were heralded around the world and enabled him to publicly proclaim the astonishing argument that the Earth, and other planets, moved around the Sun. Previously it was thought that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. His theories were thought to be against the Holy Catholic Scripture, and so began the never-ending debate between science and religion. His daughter, Virginia, became a cloistered nun and changed her name to Maria Celeste. Maria’s letters (at least two a week) to her father provide the inspiration for this novel.

Before him, the Polish cleric, Nicolaus Copernicus wrote of the Sun as the centre of the Universe and the motions of the heavens, but proffered no supporting evidence. Nor did he ever attempt to convince the public of his views. Galileo, in contrast, offered proof and told the world. His failure was that he could not account for the true cause of tides because he failed to see how the moon, a body so far away, could exert so much power over the Earth. His view therefore excluded gravity. (His successor, Sir Isaac Newton, born the year Galileo died, published the law of universal gravitation and the theory of tides.) In 1632, Galileo published his theories in Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, which was banned the following year. Almost two hundred years later, in 1835, the book was dropped from the Index of Prohibited Books. All his life, he had attracted jealousy and criticism.

Galileo, from Florence, was a sickly hypochondriac at a time when the bubonic plague swept through Europe. At times during his public humiliation, he became despondent and depressed. While in the convent, some distance from each other, his daughter studied apothecary and made him remedies in pill and tonic form, and became quite obsessed with her father’s health. In return, despite his daughter’s vows of poverty, he showed his great appreciation with money, gifts of food from his garden, and a play to be performed by the nuns in her convent. Ironically, Maria Celeste fell gravely ill with dysentery and died, before her father, at the age of 34.