Nathan Leung

Ms. Sloan
CIH 4U1
21 May 2014
The Humanness of Galileo: Examining the Historical Accuracy of Galileos Daughter
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, is a highly academic, yet human recount of Galileo's struggle
to discover the truth in the tumultuous time of the sixteenth century. There is no doubt that the book is
highly academic and the facts presented are backed up by numerous sources. The object of interest,
however, lies in Sobel's portrayal of Galileo and her efforts to portray him as a man with a passion for
both religion and science, (despite modern depictions of Galileo as a sort of martyr for scientific
progress). Sobel's Galileo will be proven to be historically accurate by examining three different "truths"
that Sobel has emphasized to bring out the idea of Galileo being a common man.
There are many who posit that Galileo was against Church doctrines and beliefs ever since he
began teaching at the University of Padua and held on to these anti-religious beliefs until he died. They
point to fact that Galileo disobeyed the papal bull, that is, the Edict of 1616, in order to continue writing
books about Copernicus' theory, which was deemed heretical. Despite this, Sobel states that "[Galileo]
remained a good catholic who believed in the power of prayer and endeavoured always to conform his
study as a scientist with the destiny of his soul" (Sobel 12). In short, Galileo did not let his scientific
explorations take him away from his faith, the greatest example of this being his renouncement of his
belief in Heliocentricity as requested by the Holy Inquisition. Jason Winschel notes that "[Galileo] was
raised and always remained a loyal Catholic, even joining for a year at the Vallambrosan Order as a
novice around the age of 14" (Winschel). It should also be noted now that Galileo, although he disobeyed
the Edict of 1616 when writing the Dialogue, always consulted papal authorities to examine his work to
acquire permission from them to publish it. In that way, Galileo conformed to the rules of the Church,
whose faith he was devoted to.

Still, Sobel notes that people have tried to romanticize the perilous situation in which Galileo was
thrusted into after having written the Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World, that is, Galileo
standing on trial before the Inquisition. She says: "It has often said that as Galileo rose from his knees
[after renouncing his 'heretical beliefs'] he muttered under his breath 'Eppur si muove' [or] 'But still it
moves'... for Galileo to voice such undaunted conviction in this hostile encounter would have been
beyond foolhardy" (Sobel 227). Some historians go beyond Sobel's critical deduction of the scene, and
hold that "the myth that he, on leaving the tribunal, stamped his foot and said, 'Yet [the earth] does move',
was invented by Guiseppe Baretti [an Italian-born English author] in 1757 and has no basis in fact"
(Ravindra). Sobel's portrayal of Galileo being faithful to Catholicism seems to hold out all the stronger
and also depict the devotion of the scientists' faith.
Perhaps one might argue that while Galileo was faithful towards the church, the Church was not
faithful to him and that it abhorred scientific exploration and discoveries. Though the Church had a
considerable amount of show-time in Galileo's Daughter, Sobel portrayed them differently than most
expected, that is, she emphasized the chaos that was in Christendom at that time which affected the
Church's beliefs and attitudes. The Church's anti-science antics are based off, Sobel argues, the shock
wave impacts from the Reformation and the Thirty Years War. She depicts, in the time when Galileo was
reaching his seventies, a dishevelled Pope Urban VIII who although was fascinated with Galileo's
discoveries was slowly losing his control over Christendom to rebel Protestants. Winschel notes that "Due
to the maladies brought on by the Protestant Revolution, the Church was compelled into rigid orthodoxy.
With the church thus poised Galileo, by dallying in theological speculation contrary to

ecclesiastical

admonition, forced an unnecessary showdown" (Winschel). Galileo's discoveries, therefore, where not
condemned because they were truly "heretical", but rather the Church was concerned with cutting loose
ends to the chaos that the Reformation had stirred up. Naturally, they saw Galileo as a threat, and as Sobel
notes "[Because] already [being] loudly accused of flagging Catholic zeal on the battlefronts of Europe,
[Pope Urban] could not allow a new affront to go unpunished" (Sobel 224). The Church, although
aggressive in its attempt to stamp out Protestant heresy, acted mostly out of self-defence and did not seek

out scientists and new scientific theories to persecute and ban as heresy. It would seem that the Sobel's
depiction of the church, though a bit "soft", is still historically accurate.
If Galileo did not hate the Church and if the Church did not actively seek to suppress him until he
had made himself into a threat by attempting to get divine qualifications for the Copernicus theory from
theologians, what kept Galileo writing? Although Galileo did defy the Church, he did so on philosophical
grounds, not spiritual or biblical. Tangelder notes:
Galileo had no quarrel with the Bible. He wanted to free science from the strange hold
which Greek philosophy had on it ... in his defence [he] made two major points: scientific
theories should ever have creedal status; the new cosmology of Copernicus was in
harmony with the bible. And he declared, The Bible tells how one goes to Heaven, not
how the heavens go (Tangelder).
In essence, Galileo, as Sobel argues, is concerned with the Aristotelian beliefs which Christianity had
adopted. Here, Sobel presents a Galileo who shows his passion for both science and religion: Galileo does
not dismiss the bible and the teachings that come from it, but merely disagrees with the interpretations of
some sections of Scripture due to the fact that it was based on literal interpretation, backed by Aristotelian
philosophy. Galileo, himself, says:
I believe that the intention of the Holy Writ was to persuade men of the truths necessary
for salvation ... such as neither science nor any other means could render credible, by
only the voice of the Holy Spirit. But I do not think it necessary to believe that the same
God who gave us our senses, our speech, our intellect, would have put aside the use of
these, to teach us instead such things as with their help we could find for ourselves,
particularly in the case of these sciences of which there is not the smallest mention in the
Scriptures (Sobel 65).
It is clear that Galileo believed that the Scripture was meant for a greater purpose, namely, the
salvation of men's souls. "The Bible was not intended to teach science and therefore its authority should
not be invoked in scientific disputes" (Langford). Knowing this, Galileo resorted to what he could learn

outside of scripture, which were namely the sciences. Sobel, along with the other sources consulted,
simply suggest that Galileo was first curious, then sought to find the truth through the telescope which he
refined from an earlier Dutch version. Out of those observations came the support for Copernicus' theory,
and despite popular pretension, the Copernicus' theory did not directly defy the church. It was an
hypothesis, a theory. And perhaps, this is why Galileo was never denounced as a heretic but was only
"suspected of heresy" due to the fact that he had (and would not) take his beliefs to his grave with him.
It is hard to find someone who admires both religion and science, as the two would seem to be
opposites of one another. Yet Sobel has proved that religion and science can be intertwined, and Galileo,
the astute mathematician, astronomer, and inventor, serves as an example of this seemingly paradoxical
co-alignment of the two. Though Galileo's Daughter may be a bit of a dull read sometimes, its academic
facts and quotes come to represent something more than a accurate chain of events. Sobel, through the
magic of her words, manages to bring Galileo back to life, in a way which glorifies his humanness and
perseverance whilst living in a religiously-shaken world.

Works Cited
Langford, J. J. "Galilei, Galileo." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 58-64.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 May 2014.<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE
|
CX3407704393&v=2.1&u=mark23900&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=ee88eae64b53c4fa7a4f9a
928d4639b5>.
Paul II, John, Pope. "Faith Can Never Conflict with Reason." L'Osservatore Romano. 4 Nov. 1992.
California Institute of Technology. Web. 21 May 2014.<http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/sci
-cp/sci-9211.html>.
Ravindra, Ravi. "Galileo Galilei." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 3256-258. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 May 2014.
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE|
CX3424501107&v=2.1&u=mark23900&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=f89fb1d56240804763cee1
afe0811eb9>.
Sobel, Dava. Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. New York: Walker,
1999. Print.
Tanghelder, Johan D. "Reformed Reflections." Reformed Reflections. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014.<http
://www.reformedreflections.ca/articles/galileo-faith-science---.html>.
Winschel, Jason. Galileo: Victim or Villian? N.p.: n.p., 2003. Print.