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

AUTHOR Maria Celeste, Suor; Sobel, Dava; Sobel, Dava et al.
PUBLISHER Penguin Classics (12/31/2002)
PRODUCT TYPE Paperback (Paperback)
Description
The fascinating letters of Galileo's eldest daughter to her father

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780142437155
ISBN-10: 0142437158
Binding: Paperback or Softback (Trade Paperback (Us))
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Page Count: 176
Carton Quantity: 40
Product Dimensions: 5.05 x 0.52 x 7.77 inches
Weight: 0.31 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Annotated, Price on Product
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Literary Collections | Letters
Literary Collections | History
Grade Level: College Freshman and up
Dewey Decimal: B
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004266920
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
annotation
From the bestselling author of "Galileo's Daughter" comes a book of the actual letters that inspired that story. The letters span a dramatic decade and reveal an exceptional woman who also was an intelligent, pious, and literary nun.
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publisher marketing
The fascinating letters of Galileo's eldest daughter to her father

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Translator: Sobel, Dava
Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is the author of "Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Planets, " and most recently "A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos". A former staff science reporter for "The New York Times, " she has also written for numerous magazines, including "Discover, " "Harvard Magazine, Smithsonian, " and "The New Yorker".

Her most unforgettable assignment at the "Times" required her to live 25 days as a research subject in the chronophysiology lab at Montefiore Hospital, where the boarded-up windows and specially trained technicians kept her from knowing whether it was day outside or night.

Her work has won recognition from the National Science Board, which gave her its 2001 Individual Public Service Award "for fostering awareness of science and technology among broad segments of the general public." She also received the 2004 Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in England and the 2008 Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for "increasing the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy."

A 1964 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, she has taught several seminars in science writing at the university level, and held a two-year residency at Smith College in fall 2013.

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Introduction by: Sobel, Dava
Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is the author of "Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Planets, " and most recently "A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos". A former staff science reporter for "The New York Times, " she has also written for numerous magazines, including "Discover, " "Harvard Magazine, Smithsonian, " and "The New Yorker".

Her most unforgettable assignment at the "Times" required her to live 25 days as a research subject in the chronophysiology lab at Montefiore Hospital, where the boarded-up windows and specially trained technicians kept her from knowing whether it was day outside or night.

Her work has won recognition from the National Science Board, which gave her its 2001 Individual Public Service Award "for fostering awareness of science and technology among broad segments of the general public." She also received the 2004 Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in England and the 2008 Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for "increasing the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy."

A 1964 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, she has taught several seminars in science writing at the university level, and held a two-year residency at Smith College in fall 2013.

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Paperback