Secret of a Medici Mistress

Secret of a Medici Mistress PDF Author: Donna Gillotte
Publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises
ISBN: 9781618626363
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
As Maddalena di Pagni embarks on a quest to become a great sculptor like her father, she finds herself tangled in the web of wealth and power woven by the illustrious Medici family. While still a teenager, she meets and falls helplessly in love with the charismatic Lorenzo de Medici, giving her body, mind, and soul to him. Her father, Giovanni, attempts to protect his daughter from a life of shame, but ultimately, his efforts cost him his life. Duty, honor and responsibility eventually wrench the lovers apart. Disheartened and overcome by sadness more painful than the fires of Dante's hell, Maddalena and Lorenzo continue on in a parallel existence, intersecting briefly at pivotal moments in history over the next decade and a half. Knowing he and Maddalena can never be wed because of their class differences, he eventually marries Clarice, a woman his mother chose for him and one for whom he has no romantic feelings. Upon her death, Lorenzo casts aside politics and opinions of others and confesses to Maddalena that he has never stopped loving her. Maddalena soon finds herself swept into the artistic and intellectual orbit of the Medici's inner circle, where she remains until Lorenzo's death in 1492. Before Lorenzo takes his final breath Maddalena shares with him a secret that will change the course of history then vows to take the Secret of a Medici Mistress to her grave.

Secret of a Medici Mistress

Secret of a Medici Mistress PDF Author: Donna Gillotte
Publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises
ISBN: 9781618626363
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
As Maddalena di Pagni embarks on a quest to become a great sculptor like her father, she finds herself tangled in the web of wealth and power woven by the illustrious Medici family. While still a teenager, she meets and falls helplessly in love with the charismatic Lorenzo de Medici, giving her body, mind, and soul to him. Her father, Giovanni, attempts to protect his daughter from a life of shame, but ultimately, his efforts cost him his life. Duty, honor and responsibility eventually wrench the lovers apart. Disheartened and overcome by sadness more painful than the fires of Dante's hell, Maddalena and Lorenzo continue on in a parallel existence, intersecting briefly at pivotal moments in history over the next decade and a half. Knowing he and Maddalena can never be wed because of their class differences, he eventually marries Clarice, a woman his mother chose for him and one for whom he has no romantic feelings. Upon her death, Lorenzo casts aside politics and opinions of others and confesses to Maddalena that he has never stopped loving her. Maddalena soon finds herself swept into the artistic and intellectual orbit of the Medici's inner circle, where she remains until Lorenzo's death in 1492. Before Lorenzo takes his final breath Maddalena shares with him a secret that will change the course of history then vows to take the Secret of a Medici Mistress to her grave.

The Borgia Betrayal

The Borgia Betrayal PDF Author: Sara Poole
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429979186
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Before the Tudors, there were the Borgias. More passionate. More dangerous. More deadly. From the author of Poison, called "stunning"* and "a fascinating page-turner," comes a new historical thriller, featuring the same intriguing and beautiful heroine: Borgia court poisoner, Francesca Giordano. In the summer of 1493, Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI, has been pope for almost a year. Having played a crucial role in helping him ascend the chair of Saint Peter, Francesca, haunted by the shadows of her own past, is now charged with keeping him there. As court poisoner to the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy, this mistress of death faces a web of peril, intrigue, and deceit that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance. As dangers close in from every direction, Francesca conceives a desperate plan that puts her own life at risk and hurls her into a nightmare confrontation with a madman intent on destroying all she is pledged to protect. From the hidden crypts of fifteenth-century Rome to its teeming streets alive with sensuality, obsession, and treachery, Francesca must battle the demons of her own dark nature to unravel a plot to destroy the Borgias, seize control of Christendom, and plunge the world into eternal darkness. *Booklist +Lauren Willig

Medici Mistress

Medici Mistress PDF Author: Julia Watson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780709103882
Category : Historical fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description


The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici PDF Author: C. W. Gortner
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
ISBN: 0345501861
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
Leaving her native Florence to marry Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici embarks on an unanticipated destiny of religious warfare, thwarted leadership and psychologically charged royal machinations. By the author of The Last Queen.

About Catherine De' Medici

About Catherine De' Medici PDF Author: Honoré de Balzac
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description


The Red Lily Crown

The Red Lily Crown PDF Author: Elizabeth Loupas
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451418875
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
Elizabeth Loupas returns with her most ambitious historical novel yet, a story of intrigue, passion, and murder in the Medici Court... April, 1574, Florence, Italy. Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici lies dying. The city is paralyzed with dread, for the next man to wear the red lily crown will be Prince Francesco: despotic, dangerous, and obsessed with alchemy. Chiara Nerini, the troubled daughter of an anti-Medici bookseller, sets out to save her starving family by selling her dead father’s rare alchemical equipment to the prince. Instead she is trapped in his household—imprisoned and forcibly initiated as a virgin acolyte in Francesco’s quest for power and immortality. Undaunted, she seizes her chance to pursue undreamed-of power of her own. Witness to sensuous intrigues and brutal murder plots, Chiara seeks a safe path through the labyrinth of Medici tyranny and deception. Beside her walks the prince’s mysterious English alchemist Ruanno, her friend and teacher, driven by his own dark goals. Can Chiara trust him to keep her secrets…even to love her…or will he prove to be her most treacherous enemy of all?

The Secret Mistress

The Secret Mistress PDF Author: Emma Darcy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Secret Wife of Louis XIV

The Secret Wife of Louis XIV PDF Author: Veronica Buckley
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374158304
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 557

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Book Description
Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden’s seduced daughter. A timely pardon and a hopeful Caribbean colonial venture failed to mend the family’s fortunes, and Françoise was reduced to begging in the streets. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe. At fifteen, she was married off to the forty-two-year-old satirical poet Paul Scarron, a former roué now grievously deformed by rheumatism—“a sort of human Z,” as he described himself. Despite his ailments, Scarron presided over the liveliest and most scandalous literary salon in Paris, and Françoise quickly became its most prized ornament. After Scarron’s death, she enjoyed a merry widowhood in the fashionable Marais district, in the company of the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos and the King’s splendid mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan, who made the young widow governess to her brood of illegitimate children. The appointment transformed Françoise’s life, but was fatal to the temperamental Athénaïs herself, with the King soon turning his attentions to the graceful governess. Françoise was raised to the nobility as Madame de Maintenon—and, unofficially, “Madame de Maintenant,” the lady of the moment. The acclaimed biographer Veronica Buckley traces the extraordinary story of Françoise’s progress from pauper child to salonnière to the compromised position of Louis’s secret wife and uncrowned Queen. An absolute ruler, Louis turned away his many other mistresses to live with Françoise only, trusting her as his closest confidante and remaining in love with her for forty years. Sparkling with the irresistible wit of contemporary chroniclers such as Madame de Sévigné, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form. In vibrant colors, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV paints a portrait of Europe in an age of violent change, and the Sun King’s France in the process of becoming its modern self.

Mysteries and Secrets: The 16-Book Complete Codex

Mysteries and Secrets: The 16-Book Complete Codex PDF Author: Patricia Fanthorpe
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459730925
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 2887

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Book Description
This special 16-book bundle collects fearless investigations into the paranormal from the pens of Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, who for several decades been researching and writing about ancient and eternal mysteries. Their entertaining and thought-provoking works span numerous topics, from numerology, freemasonry, voodoo, satanism and witchcraft to the very nature of death and time. Additionally, they have produced numerous volumes examining the great unexplained mysteries and places of history, including The Bible, European castles, strange murders, arcane objects of power, the mysterious depths of the sea and remarkable people. Take a strange and beautiful trip to the mystical side of life in this special set! Includes Death Mysteries and Secrets of Numerology Mysteries and Secrets of the Masons Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars Mysteries and Secrets of Time Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah Satanism and Demonology Secrets of the World’s Undiscovered Treasures The Big Book of Mysteries The Oak Island Mystery The World’s Greatest Unsolved Mysteries The World’s Most Mysterious Castles The World’s Most Mysterious Murders The World’s Most Mysterious Objects The World’s Most Mysterious People Unsolved Mysteries of the Sea

The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence

The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence PDF Author: Alyssa Palombo
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1466882646
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"In the tradition of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, Palombo has married fine art with romantic historical fiction in this lush and sensual interpretation of Medici Florence, artist Sandro Botticelli, and the muse that inspired them all." - Booklist A girl as beautiful as Simonetta Cattaneo never wants for marriage proposals in 15th Century Italy, but she jumps at the chance to marry Marco Vespucci. Marco is young, handsome and well-educated. Not to mention he is one of the powerful Medici family’s favored circle. Even before her marriage with Marco is set, Simonetta is swept up into Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici’s glittering circle of politicians, poets, artists, and philosophers. The men of Florence—most notably the rakish Giuliano de’ Medici—become enthralled with her beauty. That she is educated and an ardent reader of poetry makes her more desirable and fashionable still. But it is her acquaintance with a young painter, Sandro Botticelli, which strikes her heart most. Botticelli immediately invites Simonetta, newly proclaimed the most beautiful woman in Florence, to pose for him. As Simonetta learns to navigate her marriage, her place in Florentine society, and the politics of beauty and desire, she and Botticelli develop a passionate intimacy, one that leads to her immortalization in his masterpiece, The Birth of Venus. Alyssa Palombo’s The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence vividly captures the dangerous allure of the artist and muse bond with candor and unforgettable passion.