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Sinyora Da Vinci (2008)

by Robin Maxwell(Favorite Author)

3.88 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Artemis Yayınları

review 1: Signora Da Vinci is a most interesting tale of Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Caterina. The novel begins in her teenage years where Caterina is the daughter of the town's apothecary (also an alchemist) who has raised his daughter alone because his wife passed away years previously. Caterina's daily life entails gathering herbs for her father, tending to the secret alchemist's furnace, and learning the classics which have been secretly handed down from alchemist to alchemist throughout the centuries. While gathering herbs for her father, Caterina meets and falls in love with the son of a prominent villager. One thing leads to another and Leonardo da Vinci is born but then immediately after his birth, taken away from Caterina by the father's family. Caterina finds a way to s... moretay close to Leonardo by serving the prominent family as Leonardo's nurse maid. Throughout the years, Leonardo's artistic talents are recognized and he is sent to Florence to study. Once again Caterina finds a way to stay close to Leonardo by disguising herself as a man (Leonardo's uncle Cato) and setting up shop in Florence as an apothecary. Cato meets Leonardo's friends and is inducted into Lorenzo di Medici's secret society of philosophers. She/He soon becomes the object of Lorenzo's affection and faces a great number of dilemmas. During this time, artists, philosophers, and other free thinkers become the object of priest Savonarola's persecution. Lorenzo di Medici, Cato/Catherine and company hatch a plot to destroy Savonarola before he destroys the progressive thinking and works of the Renaissance.The novel is a stretch of creativity because very little is known about Leonardo Da Vinci's mother. It is also an exercise in creativity because some very fantastical and odd things occur in the later half of the novel. I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the novel, but lost interest in the last third when weird things started happening.
review 2: Una donna misteriosa da proteggere e un amore che si sviluppa a poco a poco... Questo romanzo è un viaggio (o forse sarebbe meglio dire una full immersion per le descrizioni dettagliate che fa l'autore) nella Firenze di fine '400 / inizio '500 tra vivaci botteghe di pittori come quella del Verrocchio dove entrerà a lavorare anche il giovane Leonardo, la corte neoplatonica di Lorenzo De' Medici e un Savonarola che tuona contro le abitudini e i "peccati" (omosessualità compresa) dei suoi concittadini... in una città così ricca di cultura e di intrighi, sembra tutto possibile anche che una giovane che ha avuto un figlio illegittimo (Leonardo appunto) possa travestirsi da uomo e, contando sulla sua abilità come alchimista, vivere a stretto contatto con i personaggi più interessanti del suo tempo... un bel tuffo insomma nella Firenze rinascimentale con l'unico difetto che la narrazione è in prima persona e in alcuni punti si sente che a parlare è un autore di oggi e non una vera donna dell'epoca... less

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