Historical Fiction Renaissance

Mia madre era una strega. O almeno così dissero quando la trascinarono via. Ma per me era vera solo una cosa: lei era il centro del mio universo. Avevo nove anni e la mia vita cominciò quel giorno. Inghilterra, 1573: in un mondo già illuminato dalla luce del Rinascimento, ma in cui ancora si dà la caccia alle streghe, la piccola Rose è figlia di una madre accusata di stregoneria, e per lei la vita sembra avere in serbo solo povertà e amarezza.

After the first two episodes of the series ”The Printer”, here we are at the end, the last episode of the saga dedicated to the Renaissance Jesi. We left Andrea almost at the point of death, helped by his beloved, hidden in disguise. The plot has moved to Urbino, but certainly our two heroes, Andrea Franciolini and Lucia Baldeschi, will have to return to Jesi to fulfill their dream of love. The wedding will have to be a festive and opulent event, and will have to be celebrated by the Bishop of the City of Jesi, Monsignor Piersimone Ghislieri.

A Roma il paesaggio è mutato per sempre. Sulla città svetta l’immenso tamburo della più grande cupola della cristianità, un monumentale “cielo di pietra”, opera di Michelangelo e della sua profonda devozione religiosa. Ma in basso, per le vie della città, abusi e violenze non sembrano destinati a placarsi. Il cardinal Morone, accusato ingiustamente di eresia, è stato rinchiuso nelle prigioni di Castel Sant’Angelo e i due viziosi nipoti di papa Paolo IV, Carlo e Giovanni Carafa, continuano a sfogare le loro pulsioni in un crescendo di depravazione e crudeltà.

"Meč magistra medicíny" je prvním dílem série "Kronika katů Mydlářů". Příběh proslulého kata, magistra Jana Mydláře, tu vypráví jeho syn, který po něm toto řemeslo zdědil. Historický román se odehrává v rudolfínské Praze a z jeho hrůzostrašných, tajemných a krví obestřených historií vystupuje pohnutý životní příběh magistra medicíny a kata Jana Mydláře. Příběh vypráví syn proslulého kata, který zdědil jeho neblahé řemeslo. Být katem bylo ponižující, řemesla si nikdo nevážil, katům se nedostávalo pochopení, byli celoživotními psanci.

"Die Hexe, sie soll brennen!" Im Jahre 1484 muss Richard, Sohn eines schwäbischen Kaufmanns und einer Sarazenin, hilflos mit ansehen, wie seine Mutter auf dem Scheiterhaufen stirbt; ist damit auch sein Schicksal besiegelt? Als der Junge in den Haushalt seiner Tante aufgenommen wird, wendet sich das Blatt – sie ist die Frau von Jakob Fugger, dem einflussreichsten Kaufmann des Abendlandes.

In 1660, Amsterdam is the trading and map-printing capital of the world. Anneke van Brug is one of the colorists paid to enhance black-and-white maps for a growing number of collectors. Her artistic talent brings her to the attention of the Blaeu printing house, and she begins to color for a rich merchant, Willem de Groot. But Anneke is not content to simply embellish the work of others; she longs to create maps of her own. Cartography, however, is the domain of men - so it is in secret that she borrows the notes her father made on a trip to Africa in 1642 and sets about designing a new map.

March 1557. Jack Blackjack is back in London and enjoying a sedentary life. After his treacherous voyage back to his beloved city the previous year, he desires nothing more than women, wine, beer and more women. But his new parish of St Helen's has different ideas for him. A week after first laying eyes on the tempting Miss Rachel Nailor, she turns up dead on the church vestry floor...and someone is trying to frame him for her murder! Rachel was a woman with many secrets. But was she murdered in a fit of lustful rage, or was it part of a wider political play?

Jianetta is the newest arrival to the court of the powerful Gonzaga family, and she comes with a plan. She’ll need to use all her cunning to steal the secrets of the Gonzaga’s new and beautiful horse breed to rescue her own family’s crumbling finances. But her mission to betray the family is turned upside down as she meets the young heir to the Gonzaga fortune, Armand, who has ambition and heavy secrets of his own.

A thirst for learning and a passion for astronomy draw an extraordinary young woman deep into the intellectual maelstrom, political complexities and religious extremism of Renaissance Florence. This beautifully crafted novel will appeal to listeners of Karen Brooks' The Good Wife of Bath and Pip Williams' Dictionary of Lost Words.

1505: Pregnant and reunited with the love of her life, artist Mira survives a harrowing journey to the city of her dreams. But Bayonne is nothing like she imagined. Navigating a dangerous world ruled by merchants and bishops, she struggles to reignite her painting career. 2016: Scholar Zari seizes the chance to return to Europe as a consultant for an art dealer. Overwhelmed by her job, she has little time to hunt for clues about Mira. But when art experts embrace a theory that Mira’s paintings are the work of a famous man, Zari must act.

È l'anno del signore 1550 L'Europa è ancora percorsa da venti di guerra. Il lungo scontro tra Spagna e Francia, durato decenni, causando tante morti e tanta distruzione, senza risparmiare nemmeno Roma, messa a ferro e fuoco dai lanzichenecchi, non si è ancora concluso. Il luteranesimo e le altre confessioni protestanti infiammano gli animi del Nord Europa e dell'Inghilterra. E la minaccia dei turchi, che hanno già conquistato tutto l'Oriente e raso al suolo quel che restava dell'impero bizantino, è più viva che mai.

Pensando al Rinascimento è probabile che vi vengano in mente lo splendore delle città, le opere sublimi, la magnificenza di signori e papi. Aprendo questo libro, mettete da parte ciò che sapete: verrete travolti dallo stupore. State per cominciare un viaggio nei meandri di un tempo imprevedibile, fatto di voli pindarici e cadute fragorose. Popolato di artisti strepitosi oggi dimenticati, contesse guerriere e frati ribelli. Al vostro fianco in questa avventura, ci saranno due giganti della storia dell'arte destinati a odiarsi per tutta la vita.

London, 1628. Nicolaes de Pelgrom, assassin and devoted servant of George Villiers, will do whatever his master asks of him—even if that means enduring the perilous voyage to the Indies to exact a grieving widow's revenge. Making that same journey is Jeronimus Cornelisz, a conniving apothecary determined to escape the backstreets of Amsterdam and become rich beyond imagination. Hired by a criminal mastermind to escort precious cargo to the Indies, he will kill anyone who stands in his way.

Il fascino della Firenze dei Medici. Un affresco maledetto. Una verità perduta. Firenze 1458. Lavinia, ferma davanti alla tela, immagina come mescolare i vari pigmenti: il rosso cinabro, l'azzurro, l'arancio. Ma sa che le è proibito. Perché una donna non può dipingere, può solo coltivare di nascosto il sogno dell'arte. Fino al giorno in cui nella bottega dello zio arriva Piero della Francesca, uno dei più talentuosi pittori dell'epoca.

When soldiers attack the inhabitants of a Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Lithuania, Abigail manages to escape both the attack and her abusive husband, Reuven. She travels over land and sea to Venice, where she settles in another ghetto. Believing Reuven is dead, Abigail falls in love with her widowed neighbor, Daniel. But before Abigail and Daniel announce their betrothal, her violent husband reappears.

October 1604. Plague has hit London, and the theatres are closed. But the capital's loss is Plymouth's gain, when a London theatre troupe, the Company, arrive on their 'Plague Tour'. Country physician Gabriel Taverner is bewitched and unnerved by the Company's sexually charged staging of Othello. But when Gabriel's friend tells him of a dangerous whispered conversation overheard during a brief break, he is relieved the Company will soon be on their way. Then one of the actors collapses, and Gabriel finds himself caught in a waking nightmare, where nothing is as it appears.

Jest rok 1597. W chrześcijańskiej Wenecji Żydzi żyją za murami getta, a za przywilej praktykowania swojej wiary odwdzięczają się wiernością wobec Republiki i poszanowaniem jej praw. Na galeonie handlowym kupiec Menachem Campos wypływa do Stambułu, Hila, jego córka, szykuje się do zaślubin, a młoda synowa spodziewa się narodzin upragnionego syna. Los zdaje się im sprzyjać, lecz do czasu, bo gdy z morza nadchodzą tragiczne wieści, żydowską Wenecją wstrząsają pogłoski o tajemniczych znakach - zwiastunach prześladowań i klęsk.

It's 1669, and feisty Isobel de Toledo is betrothed to be married to the son of a rich landowner when she learns people in her Seville, including her friends, are being burned at the stake. Outraged, she joins a revolutionary group of ladies of intrigue and danger, healers, and others who question the Church's preoccupation with sexual crimes and women who heal, shaking her very values and birthright. Isobel flees her homeland with Richard, a handsome sailor who saves her from being burned at the stake. They marry and board a ship, setting sail for the New World.

"I promessi sposi" è ambientato nella Lombardia del '600 sotto la dominazione spagnola. Il romanzo racconta la storia di due giovani innamorati, Renzo e Lucia, che desiderano sposarsi, ma a causa della tirannia del signore locale Don Rodrigo, che innamoratosi di Lucia intimidisce la popolazione e il clero locale, devono intraprendere una lunga serie di avventure per riuscire a coronare il loro sogno d'amore. Il libro contiene fedeli ricostruzioni storiche e temi quali la divina provvidenza, la peste, la dominazione straniera e la povertà.

August 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest, ruthless thieves, and a devious Dean who's determined to see the back of Jack. That suits Jack just fine - he wants to leave! So when wealthy merchant Wolfe, offers passage to London via sea, Jack jumps at the chance...and unwittingly into further danger!