Renaissance Fiction

Stroke by stroke, color by color, the past comes alive as a young woman in Lombardy, Italy, trains to paint with the masters. Will her ambition be too much for them? Or will she secure her place in the world of Renaissance art, despite them? As Sofonisba struggles to make her name, the Spanish empire invades Italy. With Michelangelo as her mentor and her father as her champion, Sofonisba dreams of painting the Spanish king.

London, England. A revolutionary decryption program known as TETRA emerges, revealing a cipher with immeasurable power. However, as quickly as the cipher surfaces, it goes missing. Jack's friend and fellow classicist, Egan Church, pursues the cipher by following a mysterious note written five hundred years before by Niccolo Machiavelli. Church ends up in Italy, descending deep into the path of a shadowy brotherhood known as The Prince's Order.

Enjoy these classic love poems by Harlem Renaissance women authors. The journey here begins in seduction and endures trials and ends with a hint of past wonders.

Step into a world of rogue screen readers, Braille in fantasy worlds, a friend meeting an acquaintance after several years, and more. This #OwnVoices anthology features fiction by blind and visually impaired authors showing readers how they thrive, hurt, get revenge, outsmart bullies, or go on epic adventures. Artificial Divide is an own-voices story collection that captures the many layers of blindness and, for once, puts visually impaired protagonists in the driver’s seat, letting us glimpse their lives. When we think about it, we're not really divided.

When a land of ice and fire, legends and sagas is swept into the Protestant Reformation, a witch-hunting craze begins. Unusually, those condemned and burned as witches are not women, but respectable men of learning. Þuríður Jónsdóttir has grown up praying to the old gods, and watching her father and brother practise rune magic. When the two men are accused of witchcraft and condemned to burn at the stake, Þuríður is helpless to save them.

The shadows are speaking. Can their riddle be unraveled? Eleven years ago, Royal bodyguard Giacomo da Prado first followed young Prince Luca into the shadows. Plunged against his will into a world of illicit magic, Giaco has tried to hold onto the rationality of a Reborn man, even as he walks the line between the two worlds. But now, called upon to serve as Prince Luca’s bodyguard once again, Giaco has to face all his worst fears. Luca has disappeared into the shadows - and Giaco’s beloved wife, the famed card-reader Amanda, is in danger of being pulled after him.

With demanding careers and two children, Cherise and Mason McKenzie find themselves spending more time apart than together, which allows infidelity with a trusted loved one to darken their doorstep. It is only through a series of near-tragic events that the couple are able to rebuild their lives and rekindle their love.

The roots of the Agent J universe were established in the first book, The Shadows of Agent J in what seemed to be a confusing, clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous vignettes (tiny storyettes). That anthology was in fact, a collection of puzzle pieces that will appear in future Agent J books . . . including this one. Ultimately, this will lead to an explanation of the stratospheric Holy Sequence and the Holy Darkness that is metastasizing, bringing chaos to mankind.

Truth spoken plainly and powerfully is difficult to dismiss and impossible to ignore. Edited with purpose by A. Gregory Frankson, AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets brings together some of Canada's most influential dub, page, and spoken word poetic voices and gives them space to speak freely about their personal journeys in piercing verse and unapologetic prose. Just as individual experiences of Blackness are diverse across Canada, each contributor recounts aspects of navigating their unique personal, professional, and artistic paths in Black skin.

Mia Caiozzi is determined to discover her destiny by studying the science of astronomy. But her stepmother Giulia forbids her to engage in this dangerous occupation, fearing it will lead her into trouble. The ideas of Galileo are banned by the Inquisition, so Mia must study in secret.

Enter the world of Renaissance Venice, where the competition for fame and fortune can mean life or death… Artists flock here, not just for wealth and fame, but for revolutionary color. Yet artist Giorgione “Zorzo” Barbarelli’s career hangs in the balance. Competition is fierce, and his...

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is the love of King Louis XII of France's life. Too bad he's already married. While his annulment proceedings create Europe's most sensational scandal of 1498, Anne returns to Brittany to take back control of her duchy that her late husband, Charles VIII, King of France, had wrested from her. At age 21, Anne is sovereign ruler of Brittany as well as Europe's most wealthy widow. But can she maintain Brittany's independence from France if she accepts Louis's offer to make her Queen of France once more?

The intellectual and cultural revival of African-American arts and politics in the 1920s and 1930s was centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. Here are poems from three major contributors to that rebirth: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes, The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems by Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Copper Sun by Countee Cullen, delivered by three multiaward–winning narrators.

English artist Alice Bulbeck and her twin brother, Edward, approach Axel Webb to find a lost Shakespeare play entitled The History of Cardenio. The play, performed only once for James I, has been lost for 400 years. It wasn’t included in the 1623 First Folio published by Shakespeare’s friends after his death. It is the only known play credited to William Shakespeare that has never been published. The question is, why?

Sequel to “Tudor Secrets” from the point of view of Morgana Tudor. The only daughter of King Arthur II. Morgana Tudor’s journey to becoming a healer of legend.

In the middle of the XVI century, when he abandoned his town, the Exiled knew that the only thing he could aspire to was survival. He would not begin at zero but under zero. He was going to a strange country, up north, in search of a place where thinking or feeling was not punishable by death. In this journey towards life and freedom, the Exiled has to distinguish between two paths: one that leads to survival and the one that leads to death. It’s a vital choice, the same one that individuals, cultures, and nations must also make if they wish to advance and not become extinct.

Un tuono, una raffica di vento, il merlo Mercurio spalanca le sue ali e Nina, Jamal e Lori si ritrovano nella Città Eterna: Roma. Ma... nel periodo barocco. Entrati in Santa Maria del Popolo, si imbattono in Artemisia Gentileschi, intenta ad ammirare le tele di Caravaggio. La grande artista è inquieta: la sua amica Ciecherella è scomparsa. E con lei la formula segreta del suo giallo, il colore delle eroine nei suoi quadri. La verità sulla sparizione è più oscura di quanto sembra. Indagando tra bassifondi e palazzi nobiliari, i tre ragazzi sapranno far luce su questo mistero?

Erasmus von Rotterdam war nicht nur Theologe, Philosoph, Philologe, Priester, Autor und Herausgeber von über 150 Büchern, sondern lebte als Kosmopolit in England, Italien, Frankreich, Deutschland und der Schweiz. In seiner Satire "Das Lob der Torheit" prangert der niederländische Universalgelehrte scharfsinnig wie überzeichnet die Missstände in Politik, Gesellschaft und in der Kirche im ausgehenden Mittelalter an. Matthias Ponnier liest aus dem bekanntesten Werk des großen Humanisten der Renaissance.

Tutoyant avec aisance, à rebours des modes, une forme classique très maîtrisée, Michel Houellebecq met en scène dans ses poèmes un quotidien contemporain et urbain. Ses vers nous parlent de lui, nous parlent de nous et accèdent à lu'niversel, installant ainsi leur auteur, comme un Villon de la modernité, au rang des grands poètes populaires.

When the curtains rise on Angelina Weld Grimké’s devastating drama, the Lovings—a Black family from the South—have settled into a small but immaculate apartment in an unnamed northern city. The widowed matriarch, Mary; her daughter, Rachel; and her son, Tom anticipate a more promising future here, but Rachel, a sensitive young woman, has a sudden reckoning with the past that throws her future into serious doubt.