Synopsis

In 1505 John Colet, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, announces to his intimate circle of friends that he intends to found a school for children. That circle includes the best scholars of the age: Thomas More, Erasmus, Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn. Each of them is appalled at the idea but eventually they agree to the tasks which Colet assigns them. Erasmus is sent to Italy to get a degree in theology, and Tommaso de’ Maffei is sent with him as guide and companion.

Tommaso has written a chronicle for Erasmus (A Tabernacle for the Sun) which he completes on the journey. It covers the 1480s, when Florence is at the height of its renaissance under Lorenzo de’ Medici. Tommaso recounts his adventures with the young, reckless philosopher, Pico della Mirandola. One particular stupid escapade of Pico’s robs Tommaso of the use of his right hand and ends his dreams of being a fine scribe. He is forced to turn to that new trade which he has abhorred since its invention: printing.

Amongst the books and pamphlets he prints are the tracts of the preacher of San Marco, Girolamo Savonarola. Tommaso’s friend, Angelo Poliziano, is convinced Savonarola is the antichrist, but Tommaso does not share his certainty. Events in the 1490s lead him closer to Savonarola than he intended to go, and he begins to compromise himself.

When Savonarola is eventually executed by the Florentines, Tommaso flies to Venice where he works for the great printer, Aldus Manutius. His past catches up with him, however, and soon he is on the run to England. Marsilio Ficino once instructed him to take the seed fire of Platonism to an English hearth, and in England he seeks out Colet. Who, a few years later, sends him back home again. . .

'Your story did not end in 1499,' Erasmus tells him and, after he has parted from his friend to return to Venice and Florence alone, Tommaso begins to rediscover the path to divine love.

 

The Botticelli Trilogy

The Rebirth of Venus is the final volume of a magnificent trilogy of novels which brings the Florentine renaissance vividly to life. It was preceded by A Tabernacle for the Sun and Pallas and the Centaur