Summary of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The death of your sister is a great sorrow, but it is nothing compared to the sorrow you feel for her loss. You must remember that you are all alone in this world, and that you have no one else to lean on but God.

#2 Galileo’s daughter, Virginia, was the first of his children to mirror his brilliance and sensibility. She was born in 1600, the same year as the astronomer and heretic Bruno was burned at the stake for insisting that the Earth moved around the Sun.

#3 Galileo, now 59, was a professor of mathematics at Padua. He had set a telescope in the garden behind his house and turned it skyward in 1609, when he saw new worlds that transformed his life. He was lionized as another Columbus for his conquests, but he attracted enmity and suspicion.

#4 In 1623, a new pope was elected in Rome, Urban VIII. He was a intellectualist who was interested in scientific investigation, and he had written a poem for Galileo.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822546318

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Insights on Dava Sobel's Galileos Daughter

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The death of your sister is a great sorrow, but it is nothing compared to the sorrow you feel for her loss. You must remember that you are all alone in this world, and that you have no one else to lean on but God.

#2

Galileo’s daughter, Virginia, was the first of his children to mirror his brilliance and sensibility. She was born in 1600, the same year as the astronomer and heretic Bruno was burned at the stake for insisting that the Earth moved around the Sun.

#3

Galileo, now 59, was a professor of mathematics at Padua. He had set a telescope in the garden behind his house and turned it skyward in 1609, when he saw new worlds that transformed his life. He was lionized as another Columbus for his conquests, but he attracted enmity and suspicion.

#4

In 1623, a new pope was elected in Rome, Urban VIII. He was a intellectualist who was interested in scientific investigation, and he had written a poem for Galileo.

#5

The presence of the poet pope, Pope Urban VIII, encouraged Galileo to proceed with a long-planned popular dissertation on the two rival theories of cosmology: the Sun-centered and the Earth-centered.

#6

Galileo’s daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, wrote letters to him that traveled between Florence and Rome, and were frequently delayed by quarantines. They were eventually buried or burned by the mother abbess who feared they would be destroyed if they fell into the wrong hands.

#7

The letters that remained of Suor Maria Celeste, along with those that were written by Galileo, recast the story of the seventeenth-century conflict between science and religion. Galileo was a good Catholic who believed in the power of prayer, and he endeavored to conform his duty as a scientist with the destiny of his soul.

#8

The Galilei family name was created from the first name of one of their favorite sons, the doctor Galileo Buonaiuti. They wrote Galileo Galilei on his tombstone, but retained the coat of arms that had belonged to the Buonaiutis since the thirteenth century.

#9

Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science, was also a musician. He studied medicine for two years at the University of Pisa, before he gave himself over to the pursuit of mathematics and physics, his true passion.

#10

When Galileo was ten, he went to join his parents and sister in Florence. He attended grammar school there until his thirteenth year, when he moved into the Benedictine monastery at Vallombrosa to take instruction in Greek, Latin, and logic. He joined the order as a novice.

#11

Galileo was a professor at Pisa who argued that official doctoral dress was a pretentious nuisance, and he derided the toga in