A Gift for the Magus
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E-book edition available in all formats.
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This book is much lighter-hearted than the Botticelli Trilogy and much of that humour comes from Filippo’s inability to reconcile his bodily urges and his monastic vows. Sometimes the scenarios reminded me of the kind of stories you read about monks and nuns in Boccaccio – and I suspect that was deliberate. If people know only one thing about Filippo Lippi, after all, it’s that he was a monk who ran off with a nun and had a child with her. Proud makes the romance more balanced and more touching than many history books would have it; her Lucrezia Buti, given a plausibly unfortunate backstory, has no greater vocation than Filippo himself and is as much wooer as wooed. Her departure from the convent is driven by her own desire for freedom – from the tyrannies of the abbess, from the small-mindedness of monastic life and from the enforced celibacy that torments her – just as much as it is driven by Filippo’s corresponding desire for her. From The Idle Woman, Thursday 16th August, 2012.
Some bookseller sites may be telling you that The Botticelli Trilogy is ‘difficult to get’. This is not true. You are two clicks away! For A Tabernacle for the Sun, Pallas and the Centaur or The Rebirth of Venus, make your first click here.
By going direct to the publisher, you are helping him keep his prices down and making his day. His name is David. He will be very happy to help.
Otherwise available through all good retailers, and no doubt some dodgy ones, too.
E-book editions are in preparation and will be available from September 2013.
A Tabernacle for the Sun on Kindle
THE BOTTICELLI TRILOGY
‘The historical detail in all three is exemplary, and each is a cracking good read.’ Lonely Planet Guides, Florence and Tuscany.
Linda Proud’s books on Goodreads
Judith Testa
30 Dec 2011Linda, I have purchased and read all three of your “Botticelli Trilogy” books with great pleasure and admiration. I think you must know more about the Medici family than most so-called expert scholars do!
A couple of years ago I wrote to a renowned scholarly expert on Lorenzo il Magnifico, Francis William “Bill” Kent (who died recently), asking if he could give me any information on the primary sources for the birth-dates of Lorenzo’s children. He wrote back, telling me he didn’t know what those sources are, but he thought Lorenzo had 5 children. He didn’t even have the number of children correct, much less the info I sought!
I also wrote to Miles Unger, author of a popular, but quite well researched bio of Lorenzo, with the same question, and he didn’t bother to respond.
It’s occurred to me that YOU might have come across such data in what must be a stupendous amount of research that you did for that trilogy. If you have some info on this subject, could you let me know? I’ve developed a compulsive curiosity about this.
Thanks and Happy New Year,
Judith Testa
Linda Proud
30 Dec 2011That’s an excellent question, Judith, and it is a wonder that the scholars haven’t asked it, but not a surprise. I’m sorry to hear Bill Kent has died – he gave me some help by sending me transcriptions of Clarice’s letters. He had a positive view of Lorenzo sadly out of step with our cynical times. I can’t answer your question off the top of my head, but I can delay archiving my notes and putting them in store ten miles away, something I was contemplating doing just this very day. I’m very cramped in my study and when my current book, on Filippo Lippi, comes to completion I shall – with enormous regret but of necessity – be leaving the Renaissance.
I remember puzzling over the question about the children myself, because the birth date of Giovanni is various and questionable. If you go by the history books, one year Clarice has a very short pregnancy and produces a child about three months after the last! I worked it out in the end, if only for the purpose of my story, but I couldn’t say it was true. The best source I found was in fact a book on the Pierfranceschi called, as I remember, ‘La Stirpe dei Medici’ – but I’ll do a bit of rummaging tomorrow (involving the use of ladders) and see what I come up with. How many children do you think there were? Seven, right?
I’ll be back, before next year I hope!
Linda
Linda Proud
31 Dec 2011Judith, here’s the answer:
CHILDREN OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI
Lucrezia 4 August 1470
Piero 15 November 1471
Maddelena 25 July 1473
Giovanni 1475 (became Pope Leo X)
Luigia c. 1476
Contessina 1478
Giuliano 12 March 1479 (80?) (became Duke of Nemours)
*Giulio 1477/8 (became Pope Clement VII)
Information from K. Langedijk: Portraits of the Medici.
*Giulio was the son of Giuliano.
It gives a better picture to have them in order rather than the girls as add-ons at the end.
Good book on Pierfranceschi: Gaetano Pieraccini, La Stirpe dei Medici di Cafaggiolo
Kishore
24 Jan 2012Hmmm…so you have a Kindle…are your books available as ebooks? If not (which I think is the case), when will they be available? I have Tabernacle as a hard copy in storage from two home moves ago – but, would prefer to get the e-copies.
BTW, it would be great if you can do a renaissance reader of translations, commentaries, essays – a companion to the trilogy. You already have everything collected – shouldn’t take more than a year! I even have a title for you – Infinite Variety:-)
Linda Proud
24 Jan 2012Thank you for your comments! I bought a Kindle in order to get used to ebooks, how they work and how to use them to best advantage. We are now working on getting the whole trilogy available in this format by the end of the year.
I really like your idea. I have a library of notes which are now sitting gathering dust and I’ve often wondered what I could do with them. Currently I’m revising my website, which for some reason was left in a sorry state after changing hosts, and I could do as you suggest there and wait and see if it builds into anything publishable.
I’ll bear it all in mind as I go through the three books, revising them and proof-reading for Kindle. I certainly intend to do an extensive bibliography.
Thank you so much for your interest.
Linda
Elizabeth Ruvalcaba
21 Apr 2013Hello Linda! I’m trying to purchase the Boticelli Trilogy, but have’t been able to find them anywhere except Amazon at extreme prices. Could you let me know where I can purchase them. Thanks! I’m in the USA, if that helps.
Linda Proud
21 Apr 2013Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for taking the trouble to get in touch. Godstow Press has no distributor in the States because it makes no economic sense. To get over this problem, we’re making e-books of the trilogy but I’m so very slow in my editing. A Tabernacle for the Sun is almost done, but not quite there yet. Perhaps it will be uploaded sometime in May. A Gift for the Magus is not part of the trilogy but it does act as a prequel and is already available as an e-book. Other alternatives are to buy via Amazon UK or direct from Godstow. See http://www.godstowpress.co.uk/catalogue.html. Postage is unfortunately expensive but there is a discount for buying all three books together. That should be on the website. Let me know what you decide. Very best wishes, Linda.
Bim
7 Sep 2013HI Linda,
Probably a long way behind all your other fans but I’ve just finished Tabernacle for the Sun (this morning!) and tried to ensure I could continue with Pallas and the Centaur seamlessly starting tonight. Alas, it appears that it is not available yet on Kindle – or have I missed it? Just returned from Florence and I am now hopelessly besotted with the Medici story. Any ideas when KIndle might be offering Pallas? Don’t really understand as the Rebirth of Venus is available – I’m considering skipping an entire book!
Bim
Linda Proud
7 Sep 2013Hi Bim,
So glad you enjoyed Tabernacle, enough to continue the series! I’m so sorry Pallas isn’t available yet – all my fault. I could put it up on Kindle tomorrow (or at least next week) by pushing a couple of buttons, but, as with the other two, I want to take the opportunity to make revisions, which means reading it all through again, something I keep putting off. Promise to get down to it soon! (In fact, I was thinking about it today, so your message is something of a prompt.) Venus isn’t available on Kindle yet; perhaps you muddled it with A Gift for the Magus. Now you could read that, because although it’s the last novel I wrote in the sequence, it’s a prequel to the trilogy, so no plot spoilers there. Take your time, read it slow, and perhaps Pallas will be waiting for you at the end! Very best wishes, Linda.