How will you relax, if you have the opportunity, after many difficult months?
I offer two suggestionsfor your reading enjoyment, both historical fiction, but each quite unique, followed by an interview with author Maryann Philip.
Who would have thought that Martin Luther, Machiavelli, the Renaissance artist, Raphael, and various cardinals and popes would feature as characters in the same mystery story?
Author Maryann Philip uses her creative magic to weave these diverse historical personalities, as well as major fictional characters such as Machiavelli’s mistress and their daughter, Nicola (the protagonist), into an imaginative yet not incredible plot.
This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy an engaging, sometimes earthy, Renaissance-era mystery that will keep you guessing until the end.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH MARYANN PHILIP:
What led you to set your novels in the High Renaissance period?
The High Renaissance was my focus as a history major at Stanford, because it was the dawn of the modern age and an optimistic period of extraordinary intellectual and artistic achievement.
Why did you choose Renaissance Rome as the main setting for this novel?
It didn’t happen that way. I focused on Niccolò Machiavelli as the hub to my historic wheel, because he went everywhere and knew all the powers-that-be in Renaissance Italy. Machiavelli is very well-documented once he lands on the historic stage, however, so he could not be my primary character.
Instead I chose his fictional mistress (he had several) and illegitimate daughter (none known but certainly possible) as my protagonists. Why? Primarily because I love stories of strong women, and include real ones in these “real history mysteries” whenever possible.
The first story I wanted to tell was that of the Borgia family, and their interaction with Leonardo da Vinci. That required placing Machiavelli’s fictional daughter Nicola in Rome, at the convent where Lucrezia Borgia hid out while her first husband and father Pope Alexander VI fought about her divorce, and she gave birth to the child of another man. (Real history. Too racy not to tell! I have actually been to the convent, which still exists.) Nicola’s mother had to be in Milan, where Leonardo da Vinci was at the time, until he went to Rome to work for Cesare Borgia, as historic fact. All roads lead to Rome and ultimately all the characters ended up there. I made Caterina’s husband the last murder victim, so she could remain there as a widow working for the next “warrior” pope, Julius II. That gave me the backstory that continues through the rest of the series.
Does this novel work well as a stand-alone, or do you recommend reading A Borgia Daughter Dies and Da Vinci Detectsfirst?
All the novels in the series were drafted to read as stand-alones. The backstories of the main characters are consistent and evolve with the characters, however. You will recognize them and know their histories if you read any other book in the series.
What’s your process for creating plots involving famous historical figures? How do you keep their characters true to what’s known about the real people?
The plots derive from the story I want to tell. For example, in Martin Luther and Murder, I wanted to describe what horrified Martin Luther when he traveled to Rome as a devout young monk in 1509, inspiring him later to equate the Pope with the anti-Christ. That led me to dive into what was happening in 1509 in Rome, a story complicated by the fact that Pope Julius was actually leading papal armies against Bologna when Martin Luther was there, waiting with other monastics for him to return so they could meet with him. I therefore had to send Nicola’s mother Caterina to Bologna in order to write about Pope Julius II.
To get their personalities right, I read the best biographies I can find, and compare them. I also read some original documents. I have read many though certainly not all of the commentaries in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous codices, for example. And many of the writings of Martin Luther.
What sources helped you fill in the details of daily life for this story?
That’s hard. There are not too many social histories of ordinary life in Renaissance Italy. Two books I have found helpful are Law, Family and Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy by Thomas Kuehn and The Structures of Everyday Life 15th-18th Century by Fernand Braudel.
Did you know how this novel would end before you began to write? Did your plot change as you wrote?
For each book I have to know first what real history I want to explore. That dictates who my murderer and murder victim(s) will be, which I have to know before I can start writing. That and the real history are the constraints that drive the plot. I knew, for example, exactly when Martin Luther arrived in Rome and when he left, a fact derived from his correspondence. The mystery had to be solved between those two dates. And the first victim had to be someone high in the Church to introduce the scandals that Luther was exposed to while visiting Rome.
How much did you have to deviate from history to create a satisfying story?
I try not to do it at all. I will take sides and often minority positions on historical controversies, which is more fun than simply repeating the conventional wisdom. I will also fill in gaps in the historical record. But I disclose when I am taking a minority view and any “cheats”–even down to minor discrepancies in dates— in the Afterword at the end of each book.
What were the most challenging aspects of writing?
The hardest work is being consistent with the real history, especially squeezing or expanding the story to comply with the dates. Some authors of historical fiction don’t bother, but this is important to me.
What did you enjoy most about writing this novel?
The money I made from A Borgia Daughter Dies allowed me to travel to Bologna and Pavia to envision these cities for the book.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
I call my “real history mysteries” candy-coated history and my hope is always that readers will learn some real history that is new to them. Many Catholics have been taught that Martin Luther was a monstrous revolutionary, who destroyed a church that would have remained whole, but for him. I tried to show him as I believe he was: a traditional and earnest Catholic scandalized by the terrible corruption in Rome, concerned with the sale of indulgences and increasingly uncertain about the worship of relics, both practices that Catholicism has since abandoned. Understanding this background helps explain how much tinder was lying around when Luther unwittingly struck the match.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to my readers? If you read any of my books and like them, please put up a review. The reviews are the only advertising I do. Martin Luther and Murder has not sold well. I would love to change that!
Readers, please share your favorite historical fiction reads this summer!
When you hear the name of Michelangelo, what comes to mind?
Painter of the Sistine Chapel in Rome?
Sculptor of the monumental David statue, symbol of Renaissance Florence?
Architect whose vision led to the completion of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome?
Poet who wrote more than 300 sonnets and madrigals about death, shortness of life, faith, love, etc.?
Michelangelo’s creations showed his genius,
but make us wonder*:
Was he born with these artistic gifts?
If not, how did he develophis talent?
How did he come up with his revolutionary new approaches to sculpture, painting, and architecture?
Was Michelangelo a model of how to develop or become a genius?
Was there a downside to his genius?
Powerful people virtually forced him to work on projects and in places he wouldn’t have chosen
As a rock star of his era, he attracted fans, but had few true friends. His peers (artists like Raphael and Bramante) were jealous of his success.
Did his success make for a happy life?
Michelangelo was a complex character with a complicated life.
Although he created masterpieces demanded by popes, hebelonged to a group of independent-thinking lay people, called spirituali, who embraced some of Martin Luther’s religious ideas, such as emphasis on the Bible as the only source of truth, and faith as the only way to salvation.
Did he secretly follow Luther? We can’t know, but his spirituality shines through in this passage from a poem he wrote 10 years before he died:
“Neither painting nor sculpture will be able any longer to calm my soul, now turned toward that divine love that opened his arms on the cross to take us in.”
(from Sonnet, poem 285, 1554, translated by James M. Saslow)
*For answers to these questions, I recommend The Giant, a recent novel by Laura Morelli, which approaches the complexities of Michelangelo’s personality through his friendship with fellow artist, Jacopo Torni. In contrast to Irving Stone’s Agony and the Ecstasy, which covers Michelangelo’s life story (1495-1564) in depth, The Giant is told from the perspective of Jacopo Torni, and focuses primarily on Michelangelo’s creation of the David statue (1501-1504).
This month, I’m excited to share an interview about The Giant with the author, Laura Morelli.
Q: Was there an event that triggered your decision to tell the story of Michelangelo’s creation of his monumental David statue?
Laura Morelli: The Giant: A Novel of Michelangelo’s David, was originally intended to be a nonfiction book in the spirit of Ross King’s Brunelleschi’s Dome. But then I put the project away for nearly twenty years! It was only after I pulled my old book proposal out of a drawer that I knew it was meant to be a novel instead.
For three decades, the story of Michelangelo’s David pestered me nearly as much as real-life Jacopo, the protagonist of THE GIANT, pestered his genius friend. I kept putting this project away, but it wouldn’t let me go. The story kept coming back to me over years.
Q: How did you discover a new angle that hadn’t been written about?
LM: I have always wondered what it was about Michelangelo’s David that changed the course of art history. How did that happen? How did a single man–and a single sculpture–have the power to transform the course of art history? As I began to look for answers in traditional art history research, I discovered a drama so incredible that you could not make it up! (Well, OK, I made a few things up… It’s a novel.)
As I looked for the right person to tell the story of Michelangelo’s gigante, I came across historical references to a Florentine fresco painter called Jacopo Torni, also known as L’Indaco.
The sixteenth-century art historian Giorgio Vasari tells us that L’Indaco lived “in close intimacy” with Michelangelo, and that Michelangelo found L’Indaco the funniest and most entertaining of his friends. We also know that Michelangelo invited L’Indaco to work with him on the Sistine Chapel in 1508. According to some sources, it was a friend who convinced Michelangelo to return to Florence to take on the David commission in 1501, and I like to think it was L’Indaco.
Michelangelo is one of the most notoriously temperamental artists in history, and I wondered about this relationship of seeming opposites. It is this push and pull of two creative friends, in combination with the creation of two of the most seminal works of art history—the David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling—that drew me to this story and made me want to explore this complicated friendship further.
Q: What sources helped you fill in the details and context for this story?
LM: I always start with primary sources—things written at the time. For the Italian Renaissance, there are so many great primary sources! My personal favorites are legal accounts. Sometimes the laws are so weird! And consider that laws are only made when someone does something considered egregious at the time; it really helps you understand what a culture valued and what they condemned.
For The Giant, I started with the fascinating primary accounts of Michelangelo’s David, then added the scant yet tantalizing known details of Jacopo Torni’s life.
Q: Did you discover any surprises while researching this novel?
LM: We know just enough about Jacopo to make him an incredibly interesting character: he was in Michelangelo’s inner circle, he worked on the Sistine ceiling, he may have invented a way to inhibit mold on fresco, he was funny, lazy, a practical jokester. Giorgio Vasari gives us one anecdote to hint at the complicated friendship he had with Michelangelo. Little more. What an interesting character! He’s the perfect protagonist for a historical novel, especially woven into the rich tapestry of the known facts around the creation of Michelangelo’s David.
Building out Jacopo’s character gave me the chance to delve into parts of Florentine history I didn’t know about before—life in the taverns, Renaissance card games, and (spoiler alert) what it was like to be in jail in 16th-century Florence. There were lots of fascinating surprises down each of those research rabbit holes!
Q: How much did you have to deviate from history to create a satisfying story? (What’s the ratio of fact to fiction?)
LM: For me, the fun of historical fiction is taking the facts as far as they go, then realizing there’s a whole lot of stuff we don’t know. It’s like putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle with a bunch of missing pieces. You make up the rest. For this period, there are so many rich sources that there was always at least a hint to get started.
Q: How did the events and changes happening at this time in Renaissance Florence impact the lives of your characters?
LM: It’s incredible to realize that while Michelangelo was sculpting his David, just down the street, Leonardo da Vinci was painting his famous Lisa. You can’t make that up! And that’s just one small thread in the rich tapestry of Renaissance Florence.
Q: What were the most challenging aspects of writing your novel?
LM: Honestly, this book was a long slog! Whenever you write about a real historical person—especially a “giant” like Michelangelo—you feel the burden of responsibility to do justice to your subject. I thought about this a lot as I was writing.
Q: What did you enjoy most about writing The Giant?
LM: I enjoyed living vicariously in Florence circa 1500 for many years—if only in my head.
Q: What do you hope readers will take away after reading The Giant?
LM: My readers tell me they read historical fiction to transport themselves to the past—and to learn something new. They don’t want to be hit over the head with a textbook but they want to come away smarter. I hope they also come away entertained and enriched by an armchair trip to Renaissance Italy.
Reader, would you want to be a genius if you had to go through what Michelangelo experienced?
