Letters to Father : Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623-1633

Placed in a convent at the age of thirteen, Virginia Galilei, Galileo's eldest daughter, wrote to her father continually. Now Dava Sobel has translated into English all 124 surviving letters that Virginia (renamed Suor Maria Celeste at the convent) wrote to Galileo. The letters span a dramatic decade that included the Thirty Years' War, the bubonic plague, and the development of Galileo's own universe-changing discoveries. Suor Maria Celeste's letters touch on these events, but mostly they focus on details of everyday life that connect her and her father: descriptions of confections she sent to him; news of his estate, which she managed while he was on trial; a request for Galileo to fix the convent clock. Her prose reveals an exceptional woman and presents a memorable portrait of deep affection between a father and daughter. Translated and annotated by Dava Sobel

Virginia Galilei (1600-1634), known as Suor Maria Celeste, was a member of the Poor Clare Order and was the eldest child of Galileo Galilei.

Dava Sobel is the author of the international bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, which won a Christopher Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2001 she received both the National Science Board's Public Service Award and the Bradford Washburn Award from the Museum of Science in Boston.