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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely fabulous historical fiction!, January 26, 2009
This review is from: Signora Da Vinci (Mass Market Paperback)
Not much is known about the woman who gave birth to one of the most brilliant men in our history, Leonardo da Vinci. Her name and the events around her famous son's birth is pretty much it. Until now. Robin Maxwell takes us back to 15th century Italy and paints us a beautiful picture of Leonardo's childhood and of his fascinating mother, Caterina.
Young Caterina is raised surrounded by her father's love and the beautiful countryside of Vinci, Italy. At the age of eight Caterina's father, Ernesto, teaches her the ways of apothecary and alchemy - not a safe hobby and punishable by death. A free-spirited girl, she often roams the land without a guardian. One afternoon she meets Piero, the son of a neighboring noble family. They quickly fall in love during their clandestine meetings and Caterina becomes pregnant. Piero's family forbids them to marry and unfortunately for Caterina, Piero shows no backbone and is sent away to Florence and quickly married off. When Caterina gives birth to her son she falls in love instantly and their unbreakable bond is formed. In one of the most heart-wrenching scenes I have ever read, Piero's family swoops in and whisks little Leonardo right out of Caterina's arms. This is a usual fate of fatherless children during this time - the need to preserve the family bloodline is of the utmost importance. I was broken-hearted and grieved along with Caterina.
So powerful is Caterina's maternal love in this novel...it just exudes from the page and makes you feel all warm and tingly inside. Everything she does is for her child, even going so far as securing a spot for him for as an apprentice with the famous Florentine artisian, Maestro Verrocchio, far away in Florence. Being the inventive girl that she is, Caterina finds a way to be near her son - come hell or high water. Leonardo is remarkably talented and it showed from an early age. His hunger for knowledge is completely addicting and I can't wait to read more about him.
My favorite aspect of the novel is when we meet Lorenzo de Medici and enter his world of philosophers, thinkers, scientists and artists. He is one hotty intellectual and totally stole the show (IMO). The great minds of the time are also brought to life; Sandro Bottiicelli, Marsilio Ficino, Christoforo Landino and Leon Battista Albertia are just to name a few.
I have one word for this novel...DIVINE and I recommend Signora da Vinci to EVERYONE! You will meet some of the most fascinating and enthralling characters and will not want to put this one down! It's the kind of novel that you carry everywhere and read whenever you can squeeze in a few minutes - in the kitchen while cooking, in the bathroom, waiting in the grocery store line...anywhere.
Once I've finished a novel I'm pretty stoked and eager to move on to the next adventure awaiting me. However, with Signora Da Vinci I just kind of sat back and ran through the novel again in my mind, this time slowly savoring it. Robin Maxwell has most definitely sealed herself a spot among my stalk-worthy list of authors!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Window into the Italian Renaissance, March 2, 2009
This review is from: Signora Da Vinci (Mass Market Paperback)
Much of what is known of Leonardo da Vinci's mother was that she was young and unmarried at the time of the birth. In her latest novel, Robin Maxwell takes this morsel of information and builds a life for this woman full of heartache, intrigue, and triumph. Caterina da Vinci sees life at its lowest and lives life at its highest. In her attempts to remain close to her son, she renounces her femininity so that she can live alone in Florence. Maxwell made Caterina da Vinci and the world of the Italian Renaissance come to life in a Signora da Vinci.
Caterina, the beloved only daughter of a local apothecary, is raised differently from most girls in Vinci, let alone the Western world at that time. Her father is more than an apothecary. He is a man who values knowledge above all and runs a forbidden alchemy lab in his home above his shop. He educates Caterina in all aspects of his life. Caterina's knowledge and belief in the Hermetic arts eventually set her up for her adult life in Florence where she had to disguise herself as a man to remain close to Leonardo. It is there that she runs into Lorenzo Il Magnifico and comes to be part of his inner intellectual circle. Although alchemy is not something that intrinsically interestes me, I found this section and the growing relationship of the male Caterina and Lorenzo the most engrossing parts of this novel. It was like taking a peak inside the Renaissance's "Dead Poet's Society."
Caterina's friends and family, although living in Roman Catholic Italy, are far from Christian. The growing threat of an Inquisition ultimately changes the face of Florence. They are all threatened with discovery and punishment under the theocratic rule of Fra. Savonarola and they must act before the world that they love is destroyed by a corrupt members of an increasingly corrupt Church. This is not the highlight of Catholic history and Maxwell doesn't pull any punches in this regard. Criticism is warrented, but some of the content in Signora da Vinci might be offensive to Catholics and other Christians. There is a scene where Caterina and Lorenzo consume small cakes consisting of narcotics as their true sacrament while being housed at the Vatican. While I'm sure that the Eucharist is commonly attacked and desparaged by pagans, this scene was quite unsettling to me. I don't consider myself to be very particularly religious. I can only imagine how this scene might affect those who are.
Caterina da Vinci lived quite an adventure in Signora da Vinci. I felt at times as if I was walking down the streets of Florence and basking in some of the most interesting aspects of the Italian Renaissance right along with Caterina. Her unique view of a man's world from the inside was interesting and provided some excellent drama. The author's subplot dealing with Leonardo and Caterina's involvement with the Shroud of Turin was quite interesting. While I had reservations about some of the content, I did enjoy reading this novel. If you are interested in reading about Leonardo da Vinci or Florence, you should give this novel a try.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More fantasy than historical fiction, January 11, 2009
This review is from: Signora Da Vinci (Mass Market Paperback)
"Signora da Vinci" is an imaginative creation of a life for a woman about whom we know almost nothing beyond her name, Caterina, and that she was the unwed mother of that universal genius of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
Historians have little to say about Caterina, other than that she was a peasant girl from the countryside beyond the Tuscan village of Vinci; she was likely illiterate; she was seduced by a man from Vinci named Piero and bore him a son who was taken from her and raised in his father's household. A few brief references among Leonardo's writings to a woman named Caterina may or may not refer to the artist's mother. But lack of historical information about Leonardo's mother doesn't prevent the author from giving her an interesting and unusual life.
In Maxwell's book, Caterina is no ignorant peasant. She's a brilliant young woman who has been highly educated in secret by her father, an apothecary, or pharmacist, as well as--again in secret-- an alchemist. In Maxwell's version of Leonardo's early life, his mother is presented as the source of her son's astounding intelligence.
When Leonardo's talent for drawing leads his father to apprentice him to a prominent Florentine artist, Caterina cooks up a daring scheme to follow her son to Florence: she disguises herself as a man and opens an apothecary shop of her own. In this fictional world, she has no trouble concealing her sex. Under the male name Cato, she gains respect and finds she has a lot in common with Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, and the circle of intellectuals around him, all of whom share Caterina's interest in alchemy.
There's something about Lorenzo that makes modern women writers want to jump into bed with him vicariously, through their characters. In this novel, Lorenzo is attracted to Cato, but filled with guilt about feeling desire toward a man. Cato/Caterina then lets Lorenzo in on her secret and they enjoy a passionate affair that lasts the rest of Lorenzo's life--even though Caterina is at least 12 years older than Lorenzo.
In the latter part of the book, Caterina follows Leonardo to Milan, where they become involved in a plot to overthrow the fanatical monk Savonarola, who was terrorizing Florence with his hell-fire sermons, a plot that involves Leonardo falsifying a relic, which turns out to be the still-controversial Shroud of Turin! Although the plot strains credulity, it makes for an exciting read.
If only the author had paid attention to getting her Italian on straight! Just about every Italian word in the text is misspelled or misused, and no one would ever have referred to Leonardo's mother as "Signora da Vinci," nor would Leonardo himself have been called "da Vinci." Vinci is a place, not a last name. Maxwell has people eating tomatoes in the 1470s, when that fruit didn't arrive from the New World until the late 1490s, and Savonarola using the word "homosexual," which wasn't invented until the 19th century. Furthermore, readers without a background in Renaissance history may be hard-pressed to know when the events of the novel take place, as Maxwell gives no dates until near the end of her story, when she mentions Lorenzo de' Medici's death in 1492 and the burning at the stake of Savonarola in 1498.
Provided you don't take it seriously as either history or biography, you can enjoy this book as entertaining fiction.
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