Sister Maria Celeste’s Letters to Her Father, Galileo

About the Book

Sister Maria Celeste was Galileo’s illegitimate daughter; even so, the two corresponded regularly and intimately—and their relationship has been undervalued for far too long. Rinaldina Russell, a professor of Italian language, literature and culture, sought to correct that oversight. In her translation of Maria Celeste’s letters, in her information-packed introduction and in her detailed notes, you will learn: • details about Galileo's domestic life and his place in Florentine middle-class society; • secrets lurking behind a tense father/daughter relationship played against the lively backdrop of Maria Celeste’s enclosure in a Florentine convent; • ways Galileo tried to lessen the negative effect that his trial might have among relatives and supporters. Several letters are short and deal with domestic transactions, such as the exchange of food, the repairing of household objects, the running of Galileo’s home, and the accounting of expenses and requests for money. Although they might seem mundane, these letters, together with the lengthier and the very confidential ones, draw a riveting landscape of the world in which Galileo lived and reveal the complicated relationship he had with Maria Celeste.

About the Author

Rinaldina Russell was educated in Italy and in the United States of America. She holds a degree from the University of Naples, Federico II, a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University and has taught for many years at Queens College, CUNY. She lives in Manhattan.