A Book Review: Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

Galileo's Daughter. I had this book on my bookshelf for awhile and finally got around to reading it. I don't think it is as good as Dava Sobel's Longitude, but it does have some interesting moments.

The book follows the life of Galileo, focusing efforts on the one-sided letter correspondence between his daughter Maria Celeste, a nun, and Galileo. It is one sided, because only Maria Celeste's letters have survived. One supposition regarding Galileo's lost letters is that Maria Celeste's convent destroyed his letters upon her death.

The letters deal with mundane requests for money and food items. There is also much pain regarding how the Catholic church was dealing with her father due to his at the time heretical belief that the earth circled the sun.

I'll be honest, I didn't find the letters all that interesting. What I did find interesting was the political/religious play between the Catholic church, Galileo and his supporters. The one thing I wish was written about more in the book was the politics between the Catholic and Protestant churches. It is briefly mentioned here and there that the Protestant areas of Europe were in full support of Galileo. Yet, I wished Sobel had gone deeper, because it seemed like there is a potential fascinating story in this area.

Well, and like many such biographies, the final couple chapters do make you tear up just a touch.