For those of you aware of the fact that Galileo (Galilei) ,
developed the first reliable telescope, dropped cannonballs off the
leaning tower of Pisa in his study of gravity, and was convicted by
the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief --- that the earth
revolved around the sun --- kudos. However, did you also know that
he had several illegitimate children and that one, Sister Maria
Celeste, a Clarisse nun who died at age 33, and whom Galileo
described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and
tenderly attached to me," was a gifted writer whose many
encouraging letters helped to keep the beleaguered genius on the
path to his ultimate destiny?

Sister Marie Celeste's 124 surviving letters to her father ---
never before translated into English until now --- reveal extensive
details of life during the period and much about how greater social
problems affected their individual worlds of study and meditation:
family finances; Florentine and papal politics; the agonies of the
bubonic plague; the Copernican revolution, which Galileo was
championing as discreetly as was safe to do; as well as the
hardships of monastic life, and the problems of preserving one's
faith in a natural world in which Galileo was making remarkable
scientific discoveries.

While Galileo tangled with the Church, Maria Celeste --- whose
adopted name was a tribute to her father's fascination with the
heavens --- provided moral and emotional support with her frequent
letters, approving of his work because she knew the depth of his
faith. In words both direct and poetic, author Dava Sobel breathes
life into the man, his offspring, and the earth-centered world
which Galileo changed forever, with nasty repercussions.

Unfortunately, Galileo's letters to her are lost, presumably
destroyed by Maria Celeste's convent after her death. Dava Sobel, a
former New York Times science writer, has done deep and
detailed research to write a science biography with great attention
to the story's historical and scientific relativities. Thanks to
her succinct and efficient prose, Galileo's prostration before the
Inquisition reveals more than simple science-versus-religion
symbolism. His Dialogues, after all, argued for the Copernican view
that the Earth moved around the Sun, which invoked the wrath of
Pope Urban VIII, who had earlier been a loyal friend and supporter
of Galileo. The subsequent trial in Rome ended with Galileo's
recantation and his banishment first to Siena, and then to house
arrest in Florence.

Never in Marie Celeste's short adult life did she leave her abbey's
walls, but it is clear that she suffered greatly knowing what
terrible things were being done to her father because of his
realizations. She did what she could to help him and his cause,
even transcribing his writings, copying over the Dialogue
concerning the Two Chief World Systems, while managing convent
affairs and serving as baker, nurse, seamstress, and apothecary.
Galileo was often confined to bed with incapacitating illnesses and
he treasured the medicines as well as the sweets and cakes his
daughter provided. The love, trust and respect that passes between
them gives us a whole new picture of this scientific
forefather.

Thanks to her fascination with the topic, we all are enriched by
the information Dava Sobel brings to GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, another
great story about the woman behind the man and without whom there
may have not been the breakthroughs that there were. Sister Mary
Celeste's unwavering acceptance and love for her father and his
work clearly helped him through the trials and tribulations
necessary to change the world and the way we all look at it.