Galileo's Daughter Summary

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The book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel follow the life story of famed scientist, mathematician and philosopher Galileo Galilei and his daughter Virginia Gamba, later renamed Suor Maria Celeste Galilei when she became a nun of the Convent of San Matteo. Throughout Galileo’s life, it had been as a battle between science and religion where Galileo stood in the thin line in between the warring giants. Religion shorted the range of influence of science by professing heresy towards the few that stood up. Galileo, being a devout Christian, had to choose carefully or risk not only reputation loss but also torture and a ban from ever publishing a book again. However, the pull of scientific discovery for Galileo forced this type of decisions continuously. Galileo’s faith changed every discovery put to paper by him in not so subtle ways. Being the devout …show more content…

The dowries of his daughters were paid, although not to another family for their marriage, but instead to the Convent of San Matteo for their admissions and choice to stay together. The discoveries made by him were of such importance and radical thought that if he were to be a women in the male-dominated world, he wouldn’t have been allowed to finish his studies far before they would have dismissed his thoughts as foolish. Historiography, the study of historical writings, specifically the changes and differences in the writings, fully colors the author’s narrative and analysis of the events. Nearly every chapter begins with a letter from Suor Maria indicating the changes in time and what is happening around both her and her father. The narrative written by Dava Sobel followed the path that the letters had left and all aspects of the letters were discussed thoroughly. Many speculations were not made and most of the facts, if not all of them, were from historical backgrounds that can be traced back to the

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