Sister Maria Celeste's Letters to Her Father, Galileo

Renaissance Quarterly, Autumn, 2001

Galilei, Maria Celeste. Sister Maria Celeste's Letters to Her Father, Galileo.

Ed. and trans. Rinaldina Russell. Lincoln, NE and New York: Writers Club Press of iUnivetse.com, 2000. xxxi 276 pp. $15.95. ISBN: 0-595-16279-7.

This volume contains 124 letters written to Galileo Galilei by the eldest of the daughters born out of wedlock to him and Marina Gamba. The letters, written from the Franciscan convent of San Matteo at Arcetri near Florence, date from 1623 to 1633; they are letters with "no literary pretensions," and although many are short and deal with practical, domestic matters, they offer views of the economic and labor systems of the convent, as well as its social relations and its juridical situation. The events of Galileo's life "constitute the emotional backbone of [the] correspondence," and Sister Maria Celeste's emotional ties to her father are analyzed by Russell in the introduction. Includes bibliography and notes.