Marina Gamba of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

( – ) was the mother of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He wa ...

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

children. Marina Gamba was born around 1570 in Venice.

Relationship with Galileo Galilei

During one of his frequent trips to Venice, Galileo met a young woman named Marina, daughter of Andrea Gamba, and started a relationship with her. She moved into his house in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and bore him three children: Virginia (16 August 1600 – 1634), later Sister

Maria Celeste Sister Maria Celeste (born Virginia Galilei; 16 August 1600 – 2 April 1634) was an Italian nun. She was the daughter of the scientist Galileo Galilei and Marina Gamba. Biography Virginia was the eldest of three siblings, with ...

; Livia (1601–1659), later Sister Arcangela; and

Vincenzo Vincenzo is an Italian male given name, derived from the Latin name Vincentius (the verb ''vincere'' means to win or to conquer). Notable people with the name include: Art * Vincenzo Amato (born 1966), Italian actor and sculptor *Vincenzo Bell ...

(1606–1649). In none of the three baptismal records is Galileo named as the father. Virginia was described as "daughter by fornication of Marina of Venice," with no mention of the father; on Livia's baptismal record the name of the father was left blank; Vincenzo's baptismal record announced "father uncertain" ('' Galileo's Daughter'' 24, Dava Sobel, 1999). Galileo's position as a professor and his many friendships among the Venetian nobility probably made it unwise for him to figure officially as the children's father. When Galileo left

for good in 1610 to take up his position at the Medici court in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, he took the two daughters with him but left their mother behind with 4 year-old

, who joined his father in

a few years later. With Marina no longer in the family, Galileo put his two daughters in a convent and managed to have Vincenzo legitimated by the

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

. In his 1619 request for this, Galileo declared that at the time of his cohabitation with Marina, she "had never been married" and was "already dead" at the drawing up of the act.

studied law and later became a

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...

like his namesake grandfather. He died in 1649.

Confusion with Marina Bartoluzzi

Marina Gamba is often confused with Marina Bartoluzzi, who looked after Vincenzo while Galileo was settling in Florence, resorting to the sale of a lute to pay for her services. She was long believed to have remarried to a certain Giovanni Bartoluzzi, but it has been proven that they were two different persons. Marina Gamba is probably the ''Venetian Marina, 42 years of age'' who was said to have died on 21 August 1612, ''in the parish of San Daniele''.

References

* ''Giulia degli Ammannati'' by Albert Van Helden 16th-century Venetian women Galilei family 17th-century Italian women 1570s births 1612 deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Year of birth uncertain {{Italy-bio-stub