Maria celeste galileo biography wikipedia

She was the daughter of the scientist Galileo Galilei and Marina Gamba. Virginia was the eldest of three siblings, with a sister Livia and a brother Vincenzio. All three were born out of wedlock, and the daughters were considered unworthy for marriage. Troubled by monetary problems, Galileo placed them in the San Matteo convent shortly after Virginia's thirteenth birthday.

When she took the veil inVirginia chose her religious name, Maria Celeste, in honour of the Virgin Mary and her father's love of astronomy.

Maria celeste galileo biography wikipedia

From her cloisterMaria Celeste was a source of support not only for her Poor Clares sisters, but also for her father. Maria Celeste served as San Matteo's apothecary herself being of frail health. He continued his research but now on matters only indirectly related to heliocentrism, which in fact were quite necessary for a full scientific revision of the cosmos to heliocentrism.

While the state of research by the middle of the seventeenth century did not absolutely prove the heliocentric system, the Ptolemaic system had lost all credibility, and more traditional astronomers looked to alternatives such as that provided by Tycho Brahe as a more rational blend of old and new models. Besides being a biography of Galileo and his daughter, the book describes Galileo's scientific work.

In addition to Galileo's well-known enhancements and use of the telescope and his conviction of the correctness of the Copernican system, he had many other scientific achievements. Dava Sobel claims he discovered and investigated sunspotswhich again did not bring him much favor with the Church, which, she claims, held the Aristotelian beliefs of the heavens containing only perfect unchanging celestial spheres.

He improved the compass and developed a rudimentary thermometer. He devoted the last ten years of his life to the study of bodies in motion, laying the groundwork for Isaac Newton 's laws of motion formalized in the next decades. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his promulgation of experimental sciencethe cornerstone of the scientific methodas his Aristotelian predecessors in science claimed something is true simply because it is obvious.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. There is evidence she prepared the manuscripts for some of Galileo's books. Maria Celeste frequently asked her father for help for the convent, and kept it afloat through his influence. Galileo helped repair its windows and made sure its clock was in order.

Inthe Inquisition tried Galileo for heresy. He was forced to recant his views on heliocentrismand was sentenced to house arrest for life. Shortly after Galileo returned to Arcetri in disgrace, Maria Celeste contracted dysentery and died on 2 Aprilaged Galileo described Maria Celeste as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me".

After Galileo's death, marias celeste galileo biography wikipedia from Maria Celeste written between and were discovered among his papers. Galileo's responses have been lost. Maria Celeste's letters have been published:. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Virginia, Galileo's oldest child, was born in Padua on 12 August Her mother, Marina Gambawas Galileo's housekeeper.

When Galileo moved to Florenceinhe took Virginia and his other daughter, Liviawith him, leaving his son Vincenzio only four years old with his mother for a few years. After he had settled in Florence, Galileo decided to put his two daughters in a convent for life. It took several years to make the arrangements. Not the least problem was that the girls were too young to make this important decision for themselves.

Through the offices of Cardinal Maffeo Barberinione of his admirers, Galileo obtained dispensation on this score, and in both girls were placed in the convent of San Matteo in nearby Arcetri, where the abbess was the sister of the secretary of the grand duke of Tuscany. Virginia took the veil inchoosing the name of Sister Maria Celeste, and Livia followed the same course a year later, becoming Sister Arcangela.

Little is known about the life of Sister Maria Celeste untilbut about letters to her father, written from to have survived. From these the picture of a loving daughter, always solicitous of her father's well being, emerges.