Essentially a biography of the great man himself and his struggle with the Vatican on one of the biggest issues of the seventeenth century, scientific observation versus the literal truth of the Bible. But the tale is beautifully and imaginatively written around an archive of letters from his intelligent nun-daughter, Maria Celeste, who comments not only on these great affairs of state but also on the details of the family's domestic life in Tuscany.
(Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard - bwl 7 February 2001 ) |
