Overview

Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de' Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world's wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors―and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence's streets. Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici's bank exacerbates the city's staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe's preeminent destination for gay men―or ""florenzers,"" as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter's apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation―but risk lingers around every corner.

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Reviews

""Imagines the early life and same-sex longings of Leonardo da Vinci against the backdrop of a conflict between the Medici family and the Vatican. The novel...feels freshly contemporary in its papal intrigue and plutocratic power battles."" -- "" Washington Post"" ""Well-researched, proudly lusty historical fiction."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews""

Author Information

Phil Melanson is a graduate of New York University and the University of Warwick. A former movie marketer for Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures, he now lectures in film and television for Boston University. He lives in London.

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