Background
Marina Gamba was born around 1570 in Venice.
Marina Gamba was born around 1570 in Venice.
During one of his frequent trips to Venice, Galileo met a young woman named Marina di Andrea Gamba and started a relationship with her. 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.
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 acting He died in 1649.
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.