GALILEI, VIRGINIA. — Natural daughter of Galileo and Marina Gamba, born in Padua on 13 August 1600, died in Arcetri on 2 April 1634. At the age of 14, together with her sister Livia, she was entrusted to the nuns of the monastery of S. Matteo in Arcetri; two years later, on 4 October 1616, she took her solemn vows under the name of Sister Celeste, followed on 28 October 1617 by her sister, who took the name of Sister Angelica. Galileo held his eldest daughter in particular affection (a woman of exquisite intellect, singular goodness, and most devoted to him) and often aided the very poor community with money and provisions.
There remain of Sister Celeste 124 letters, written to her father from 10 May 1623 to 16 December 1633, in which, out of love for her family and for the history of the trial (after Galileo’s condemnation, she “persuaded that the arcane accompaniment of that title of obedience to Holy Church is most efficacious”), she wished to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for her father. The letters alternate between clear reflections of an austere and cloistered life.