Maria celeste galileo biography lessons
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Galileo's Daughter
1999 book by Dava Sobel
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love is a book by Dava Sobel published in 1999.[1] It is based on the surviving letters of Galileo Galilei's daughter, the nun Suor Maria Celeste, and explores the relationship between Galileo and his daughter. It was nominated for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.[2]
Historical background
[edit]Virginia Galilei (1600–1634) was Galileo's first child, born in Padua, Italy. Galileo never married the mother of his three children, meaning they were all born illegitimate. With little prospect of marriage for his two daughters due to their illegitimacy, Galileo sent Virginia and her sister, at the age of thirteen and twelve respectively, to live in the San Matteo Convent, Arcetri, for the rest of their lives. Virginia adopted the veil in 1616, changing her name to Suor Maria Celeste.
Maria Celeste maintained contact with her father throughout her entire life through letters. Although none of Galileo's letters are known to have survived, 120 of Maria Celeste's exist. These letters, written from 1623 to 1634, depict a woman with incredible brilliance, industry, sensibility and a deep love for her father. Maria Celeste died of
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This unsigned, undated, untitled painting, which disappeared from a small museum in Arcetri soon after it was photographed, is generally thought to portray Suor Maria Celeste. |
Galileo Galilei, famously the father of modern physics, also fathered three children during a 12-year love affair with the mysterious Marina Gamba. When he ended their liaison in 1610 by leaving Venice to become chief mathematician and philosopher at the Medici court in Florence, he took with him his two daughters, Virginia and Livia, ages 10 and nine, whom he had christened after his sisters, while four-year-old Vincenzio, named for Galileo's father, stayed temporarily under Marina's care.
Realistically appraising his daughters' future prospects, Galileo placed them at the Convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, a mile from Florence, shortly after Virginia's thirteenth birthday. As each girl reached the canonical age of 16, she professed her vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Franciscan order of the Poor Clares. Virginia took the name Maria Celeste, in a gesture that acknowledged her father's fascination with the stars. She remained devoted to Galileo for the rest of her life, and he grew emotionally dependent upon this "woman of exquisite mind," as he called her, "singular goodness, an
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| Maria Celeste |
Galileo's Daughter: Letters current Essays
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Essays:Letters:1623 | 1624 | 1625 | 1626 | 1627 | 1628 | 1629 | 1630 | 1631 | 1633