Authors: Mary Hoffman
Gherardo Maffei de’ Gherardini,
* another of these young nobles
* = historical figures
arrabbiati
‘The enraged ones’– anti-Savonarola faction in Florence
Arte della Lana
The Guild of Wool Merchants, responsible for the Duomo
bottega
A workshop
braccio
(pl.
braccia
)
A measurement of about 22 and 7/8ths inches, according to Charles Seymour, but variable
compagnacci
‘The bad or ugly companions’ – aristocratic pro-Medici faction in Florence
condottiere
A leader of a band of mercenary
(pl.
condottieri
)
soldiers
fanciulli
(sing.
fanciullo
)
Literally ‘children’, specifically the boys who carried out Savonarola’s wishes
fratesco
(pl.
frateschi
)
‘A follower of the friar’(Girolamo Savonarola)
gonfaloniere
The chief magistrate of the city
lizzatura
A method of sliding marble down a row of planks
natura morta
A ‘still life’ in art
Opera del Duomo
The workshop for work on the cathedral
Operai del Duomo
Officials of the Opera del Duomo
paneficio
A baker’s shop
picchiapietre
A stonecutter
piagnone
(pl.
piagnoni
)
‘A weeper’ – impolite name for a follower of Savonarola
practica
A public inquiry
scalpellino
Another word for a stonecutter
Signoria
The seat of government in Florence
vernaccia
A dry white wine
Many thanks to my dear Florentine friend, Carla Poesio, for reading the text and putting me right about beer. Also to my quasi-Venetian friend, Michelle Lovric, for doing the same but without the beer. Living near Oxford as I do, I am always so grateful to be able to use the Bodleian, Taylorian and Sackler Libraries and this time I was also able to look at Michelangelo drawings in the Ashmolean Museum.
Among the many, many books and articles I read,
Michelangelo’s David: A Search for Identity
by Charles Seymour Jr (1967), Saul Levine’s 1984 article about Michelangelo’s lost bronze
David
, and Frederick Hartt’s
David by the Hand of Michelangelo
(1987) were the most influential. Absolutely invaluable was R. Barr Litchfield’s
Online Gazetteer of Sixteenth Century Florence
(2006).
And I never attempt to write any historical novel without the assistance of the indispensable London Library, of which I am a happy Country Member.
Troubadour
The Falconer’s Knot
The Stravaganza Sequence
City of Masks
City of Stars
City of Flowers
City of Secrets
City of Ships
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in July 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
36 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QY
This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © Mary Hoffman 2011
The moral right of the author has been asserted
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781408818701
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