Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love

Dava Sobel draws on her long interest in Galileo and the surviving letters of his daughter, a cloistered nun, to create a biography of the man Albert Einstein described as "the father of modern physics—indeed of modern science altogether." The book also presents a portrait of Maria Celeste, a historical figure largely forgotten until now, whom her father characterized as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me." The narrative moves between Galileo's public life and Maria Celeste's sequestered existence, exploring Florence under the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during a transformative period when humanity's understanding of its place in the cosmos was fundamentally changing. Set against the backdrop of the bubonic plague and the Thirty Years' War, the book examines how Galileo sought to reconcile his Catholic faith with the discoveries he made through his telescope. Sobel reexamines Galileo's seventeenth-century conflict with Catholic doctrine, a clash that continues to shape the relationship between science and religion.