by Dava Sobel
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Appreciation
I most sincerely thank Silvio Bedini for bringing Suor Maria Celeste into my life; Albert Van Helden for encouraging me to tell her story; George Gibson for wanting to hear it; Michael Carlisle for retrieving a treasure from Venice; Kristine Puopolo for her curiosity; John Casey for his clues; Father Ernan McMullin for his insights; Mariarosa Gamba Frybergh and Alfonso Triggiani for the Italian lessons; I. Bernard Cohen for his blessing and dazzling; Doron Weber and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the officers’ grant; William J. H. Andrewes for his support; Betty Sobel for her research assistance; Owen Gingerich for his challenge and the view from the Geniculum; Stephen Sobel for the lute music and calendrics; Robert Pirie and the American Academy in Rome for the night of the Lynx; Ken Soden and Frank Randazzo for the itineraries; Irene Tully for the poem; Drs. Michael and Stephen Sobel, Peter Michalos, Barry Gruber, Alan Katz, and Harry Fritts for their diagnoses of diseases past; Flanzy Chodkowski for the textbooks, hagiographies, and rosaries; Diane Ackerman and Lois Morris for the notebooks; Antonia Ida Fontana and the National Central Library of Florence for permission to view Suor Maria Celeste’s letters; Franco Pacini for the keys to Galileo’s house; Paolo Zaninoni for source materials from Italy; Mara Miniati for carte blanche at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence; Paolo Galluzzi for the secret of Galileo’s tomb; Francesco Bertola for arriving at Padua deus ex machina; Frank Drake for his celestial mechanics; Chiara Peacock and Barbara Lynn-Davis for the Tuscan gardens; Antonio Di Nunzio for entry into the Clarisse convents of Torino; Amanda Sobel for interstate library loans; James MacLachlan for his work in progress and Mersenne tradition of generosity; K. C. Cole for her wisdom; Kate Epstein for her Latin erudition; Mother Mary Francis and her sisters at the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe for their prayers and the answers to my questions; Thomas Settle for conducting experiments in the history of science; the staff members of the book departments at Christie’s and Sotheby’s New York auction houses and Betsy Walsh at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington for access to first editions of Galileo’s books; Marcy Posner and Tracy Fisher for representation in foreign markets; Rita and Gary Reiswig for the festivities; and Zoe and Isaac Kle
in for their love, support, finger puppets, and inspirational icons.
Additional thanks to Bernard Cohen, Frank Drake, Mariarosa Frybergh, Owen Gingerich, James MacLachlan, Mother Mary Francis, Christopher Potter, Dick Teresi, Alfonso Triggiani, and Albert Van Helden for reviewing and commenting on the almost-final manuscript.
Art Credits
View of Florence, by F. B. Werner, NICOLO ORSI BATTAGLINI/ART RESOURCE, NY
Galileo Galilei, by Justus Sustermans, 1635. SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY
Suor Maria Celeste, FRATELLI ALINARI/ART RESOURCE, NY
THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D.C
Galileo presents his telescope to t he Doge in Venice, ARCHIVI ALINARI/ ART RESOURCE, NY
and following part titles Letter from Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo. BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON/ART RESOURCE, NY
CORBIS-BETTMANN
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, LONDON
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH, LONDON
SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
FILIPPO BUONANNI, S.J., NUMISMATA PONTIFICUM, CIT., VOL. I, P. 352
BIBLIOTECA ACCADEMIA DEI LINCEI CORSINIANA DI ROMA, ROME
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ALINARI/ART RESOURCE, NY
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS
SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARY
CORBIS/ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO page 96 Procession of Saint Clare with the Eucharist, THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE FOGG ART MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUMS, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. GIFT OF BELINDA L. RANDALL FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOHN WITT RANDALL
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
Holy card from the Basilica of Saint Clare, Assisi
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
ARCHIVIO SEGRETO VATICANO
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ARCHIV/INTERFOTO
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ARCHIGINNASSIO COMMUNAL LIBRARY, PADUA
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
The Senators of Florence, by Justus Suster mans. ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD
THE TIME MUSEUM, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
NIMATALLAH/ART RESOURCE, NY
THE HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA, ROME
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
Trial of Galileo. Anonymous, THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, FLORENCE
MUSEE DU LOUVRE, PARIS
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
IL MUSEO DEL TESORO DI SANTA MARIA ALL’lMPRUNETA
ARCHIVIO SEGRETO VATICANO
Galileo and his inclineplane, ARCHIVI ALINARI/ART RESOURCE, NY
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA
THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
From Two New Sciences, by Galileo Galilei, translated by Henry Crew 8C Alphonso de Salvio, Dover Publications, New York
IMAGE SELECT/ART RESOURCE, NY
Galileo and Vincenzio Viviani. ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ART RESOURCE, NY
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
FRATELLI ALINARI/ART RESOURCE, NY
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
SCALA/ART RESOURCE, NY
ART RESOURCE, NY
ISTITUTO EMUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, FLORENCE
Most of the quotes attributed to Galileo in these pages have been drawn from various excellent English translations by Mary Allan-Olney, Mario Biagioli, Richard Blackwell, Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio, Giorgio de Santillana, Stillman Drake, Maurice Finocchiaro, Maria Luisa Righini Bonnelli, William Shea, Jane Sturge, and Albert Van Helden. Stillman Drake merits particular mention and gratitude for having translated every one of Galileo’s major works into English. The Rule of Saint Clare and The Testament of Saint Colette (Saint Colette solidified Saint Clare’s order in France) were translated from Latin and French texts respectively by Mother Mary Francis, Federal Abbess of Poor Clares in America. All biblical passages are rendered from the King James Version and from the New American Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible. The translation of Galileo’s daughter’s letters from the original Italian are the author’s own.
Copyright © 1999 by Dava Sobel
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
First published in the United States of America in 1999 by
Walker Publishing Company, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sobel, Dava.
Galileo’s daughter: a historical memoir of science, faith, and
love/Dava Sobel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-802-77747-8
1. Galilei, Galileo, 1564-1642 Correspondence. 2. Galilei, Maria
Celeste, 1600-1634 Correspondence. 3. Astronomers—Italy—
Biography. I. Title.
QB36.G2S65 1999
520’.92—dc21
[B] 99-23885
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
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