He was appointed as chief mathematician of the U Pisa and Philosopher and Mathematician to the Grand Duke, moving to Florence in Tuscany to assume these duties in 1610.

In this book he described the true nature of the Via Lactea (Milky Way), sunspots, and the rotation of the sun. ' Sidereus Nuncius' (The Starry Messenger, 1610), calling the moons wandering or Medicean stars (Sidera Medicea). He was the first to use the telescope extensively for astronomical purposes and observed the mountains of the moon and in 1610 the 4 moons of Jupiter. GG worked on the spyglass or telescope invented by Hans Lippershey in Holland, grinding his own lenses and thereby greatly improving its initially primitive design. He also developed a rudimentary thermometer and began to study falling bodies. He tutored the future leader of the ruling Florentine Medici family, who acceded as Grand Duke Cosimo II as of 1609. He invented a calculating compass, described in ' Geometric and Military Compass of GG, Florentine Patrician and Teacher of Mathematics in the University of He took a chair in math at U Padua 1592, where he met Marina. He took responsibility for his extended family when his father died 1591. GG attended U Pisa 1581-5 without earning a degree and secured a teaching post there 1589. GG's father was a musician interested in the revival of classical Greek musical forms. His letters to her do not survive, though many from her to him do. The difference in social positions between the poor but patrician Galilei family and Marina in part explained why he never married Marina, and Maria's illegitimacy forced her to be placed in the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri at the age of 13.

2 April 1634, became Suor Maria Celeste) and Livia (1601-1659, became Suor Arcangela). His first son Vincenzio (1606-1669) was born out of wedlock to his longstanding mistress Marina Gamba of Venice and eventually legitimized. GG had sister Virginia Galilei Landucci and brother Michelangelo. He was descended from the physician Galileo Buonaiuti, after whom the family had taken the name Galilei. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa Italy in the same year as Shakespeare, 1564, of father Vincenzio Galilei and Giulia Ammannati Galilei. Overall Impression: A reasonable work and interesting for trying toĬonvey the life and times of Galileo's daughter as well as the life of the great Bracketed items are in part taken from the Encyclopedia Quotations are for the most part taken from that work, asĪre paraphrases of its commentary. Justus Sustermans, portrait of Galileo Galilei, 1636Īcknowledgement: This work has been summarized using the 1999 Walker PublishingĮdition. Summary by Michael McGoodwin, prepared 2000

Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel