The Malice of Fortune - A Novel of the Renaissance

Zusatztext 49766255 Informationen zum Autor Michael Ennis taught art history at the University of Texas, developed museum programs as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and worked as an independent curator and consultant. He is the author of two historical novels, The Duchess of Milan and Byzantium . He has written for Esquire and Architectural Digest , and is a regular contributor to Texas Monthly . He lives in Dallas with his television producer wife, Ellen, and their daughter, Arielle. Klappentext When Pope Alexander orders the courtesan Damiata to the remote fortress city of Imola to learn the truth behind the murder of his beloved son! Juan! she knows that failure comes at the price of her own child's freedom. However! a string of gruesome murders have left Imola's residents too gripped by fear to help a lone woman. Enlisting the aid of the obscure Florentine diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli and the eccentric military engineer Leonardo da Vinci! Damiata sets off to decipher the killer's taunting riddles: she with her street smarts! Leonardo with his groundbreaking "science of observation!" and Machiavelli with his new "science of men." Excerpted from the Hardcover Edition Chapter 1 My dearest, most darling Giovanni, We lived in two rooms in the Trastevere. This district of Rome lies across the Tiber from the old Capitol Hill, on the same side of the river as the Vatican and the Castel Sant’Angelo. Gathered around the Santa Maria church, the Trastevere was a village unto itself, a labyrinth of wineshops, inns, tanneries, dyers’ vats, and ­falling-­down houses that were probably old when Titus Flavius returned in triumph after conquering Judea; many of the Jews who lived there claimed to be descended from his captives. But our neighbors came from everywhere: Seville, Corsica, Burgundy, Lombardy, even Arabia. It was a village where everyone was different, so no one stood out. Our rooms were on the ground floor of an ancient brick house off a narrow, muddy alley, with little shops and other houses crowding in on every side, their balconies and galleries so close overhead that we always seemed to go out into the night, even at noon. I kept my books and antique cameos hidden, displaying nothing that might tempt a ­thief—­or reveal who I had formerly been. But we whitewashed the walls once a year and always swept the tiles, and you never slept on a straw mattress but always on good cotton stuffing; there was never a day we ­didn’t have flowers or fresh greens on our tiny ­table—­or wanted for bacon in our beans. In the evening, before you slept and I went out, I would read Petrarch to you or tell you stories. That was what we were doing on our last night ­together—­19 November, anno Domini 1502. I showed you this bronze medallion stamped with a portrait of Nero Claudius Caesar, about whom I recited tales I had read in Tacitus when I was little more than a girl. Hearing of his crimes, you gave Signor Nero a very stern look and wagged your finger at his engraved visage, telling him, “Even an emperor does not have lice?.?.?.?lice?.?.?.” “An emperor does not have lice?” I asked, which made you frown like a German banker, so I said, “I think the word you are reaching for is license.” “Sì, Mama, license. Even an emperor does not have license to be so evil.” Your sweet cricket voice was so grave. “Therefore, we shall punish Signor Nero. No dessert! His sugared almond will be given to Ermes.” Do you remember Ermes, my eternal love? He was our darling Tenerife, who adored you as much as you adored him. When you said his name he wiggled his woolly rump and lapped at your precious hand with his little pink tongue. Camilla sat on the bed with us, sewing patches on her skirt. She was my dearest friend and most devoted servant, who took you...

Product details

• Authors: Michael Ennis
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2013
• EAN: 9780307951045
• ISBN: 978-0-307-95104-5
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 203 mm x 22 mm
• Series: Anchor Books
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense