Author: davasobel

With over 16,700 five-star Goodreads ratings! This Wall Street Journal bestseller charts the 18th-century development of the marine chronometer — a tool crucial to the seafaring exploration of the day. “An enthralling gem of a book… An amazing tale of political intrigue, foul play, scientific discovery, and personal ambition” (Publishers Weekly).

Galileo Galilei was the foremost scientist of his day. Though he never left Italy, his inventions and discoveries were heralded around the world. His telescopes allowed him to reveal the heavens and enforce the astounding argument that the earth moves around the sun. For this belief, he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and forced to spend his last years under house arrest. Galileo’s oldest child was thirteen when he placed her in a convent near him in Florence, where she took the most appropriate name of Suor Maria Celeste. Her support was her…