Maria Celeste1.32004/05/11 15:53:31 GMT-52004/05/25 11:42:07.716 GMT-5AlbertVan Heldenhelden@rice.eduAlbertVan Heldenhelden@rice.eduRobertAhlfingerahlfing@rice.eduMariaCelesteGalileoGambaCardinal Maffeo BarberiniInformation on Maria Celeste, the daughter of Galileo Galilei.
Virginia, Galileo's oldest child, was born in Padua on 12 August
1600. Her mother, Marina Gamba, was Galileo's housekeeper. When
Galileo moved to Florence, in 1610, he took Virginia and his other
daughter, Livia (1601-1659), with him, leaving his son Vincenzio
(only four years old) with his mother for a few years.
After he had settled in Florence, Galileo decided to put his
two daughters in a convent for life. It took several years to
make the arrangements. Not the least problem was that the girls
were too young to make this important decision for
themselves. Through the offices of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini,
one of his admirers, Galileo obtained dispensation on this
score, and in 1613 both girls were placed in the convent of San
Matteo in nearby Arcetri, where the abbess was the sister of
the secretary of the grand duke of Tuscany. Virginia took the
veil in 1616, choosing the name of Sister Maria Celeste, and
Livia followed the same course a year later, becoming Sister
Arcangela.
Little is known about the life of Sister Maria Celeste until
1623, but about 120 letters to her father, written from 1623 to
1634 have survived. From these the picture of a loving
daughter, always solicitous of her father's well being,
emerges. Her letter to her father of 21 November 1623 is
typical:
Most Illustrious Lord Father,
I cannot rest any longer without news, both for the infinite
love I bear you, and also for fear lest the sudden cold,
which in general disagrees so much with you, should have
caused a return of your usual pains and other complaints. I
therefore send the man who takes this letter purposely to
hear how you are, and also when you expect to set out on your
journey I have been extremely busy at the
dinner-napkins. They are nearly finished, but now I come to
putting on the fringe, I find that of the sort of which I
send you a sample, a piece is wanting for two dinner-napkins:
that will be four braccia. I would be glad if you could
let me have it immediately, so that I may send you the
napkins before you go; as it was for this that I have been
making such haste to get them finished.
As I have no cell of my own to sleep in, Sister Diamanta
kindly allows me to share hers, depriving herself of the
company of her own sister for my sake. But the room is so
bitterly cold that with my head so infected, I do not know how
I shall remain well, unless you can help me by lending me a
set of those white bed-hangings which you will not want now. I
would be glad to know if you can do me this service. Moreover,
I beg you to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which
has just been published, so that I may read it, for I have
a great desire to see it.
These few cakes I send are some I made a few days ago,
intending to give them to you when you came to bid us
adieu. As you departure is not so near as we feared, I send
them lest they should get dry. Sister Arcangela is still
under medical treatment, and is much tried by the remedies. I
am not well myself, but being so accustomed to ill health, I
do not make much of it, seeing, too, that it is the Lord's
will to send me continually some such little trial as this. I
thank Him for everything, and pray that He will give you the
highest and best felicity. And finally, with all my heart, I
greet you in the name of me and Sister Arcangela.
From San Matteo, the 21st of November 1623
Your most
affectionate daughter Sister Maria Celeste Galilei
If you have collars
to whiten, you can send them.
The convent of San Matteo was very poor. The nuns did not have
the wherewithal to feed themselves and keep the buildings in
repair. Maria Celeste wrote to her father that the bread was
bad, the wine sour and that they ate ox meat. Galileo helped
repair windows and personally took charge of keeping the convent
clock in good repair. Maria Celeste often had to appeal to her
father for help, and she was chronically ill. She bore her ill
health with dignity and courage, and managed to be a great
comfort to her father. She worked constantly to mitigate the
difficulties between Galileo and her brother Vincenzio.
In 1631 Galileo bought the villa "Il Goiello" in Arcetri, near
the convent. From this house he could see San Matteo and hear
its bells. It was here that he spent his final years under
house arrest. Part of the sentence that Galileo received in
1633 read as follows: "As a salutary penance we impose on you
to recite the seven penitential Psalms once a week for the next
three years." Sister Maria Celeste took it upon herself to
perform this penance for him. She died, however, on 2 April
1634, less than four months after Galileo's return to Arcetri.
Mary Allan-OlneyThe Private Life of Galileo. Compiled Principally from his Correspondence and that of his Eldest Daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of S. Matthew in Arcetrianonymous1870Maurice A. FinocchiaroThe Galileo Affair: A Documentary HistoryBerkeley: University of California Press1989