Review: Galileo's Daughter

Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me a while to finish this book but not because I wasn't enjoying it and not because it was a heavy read... It just seemed to take a long time and I'm not sure why.

It was really enjoyable. All the time I was reading it, I would talk to people and find my self starting sentences with, "I'm reading this book about Galileo...". I suspect most people only know the headline: religion versus science. This book makes it clear it that is a horrendous over-simplification. For instance, Galileo's Daughter suggests that Galileo was a good Catholic who worked hard to make sure his book did not fall foul of church doctrine. It also made me aware that science, as we know it now didn't exist: Galileo was inventing it in the face of opposition from his peers (e.g. most people know about the famous experiment where he dropped two balls off the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I didn't realise that many of his contemporaries refused to accept the evidence, preferring instead to cling to the wisdom of the ancients). But is also hinted that for all his brilliance he was not always wise: for example, he seemed to enjoy humiliating his rivals and perhaps it was not wise to put the words of the pope in the mouth of a character called "Simplicio" (which, in Italian suggests "simpleton").

The reason for the book's title is that it prominently features letters sent to him from his daughter. While the insight into covent life was interesting, I must admit I would have been quiet happy to have missed that aspect of the book.

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