David (36 page)

Gherardo Maffei de’ Gherardini,
* another of these young nobles

* = historical figures

Glossary

arrabbiati

‘The enraged ones’– anti-Savonarola faction in Florence

Arte della Lana

The Guild of Wool Merchants, responsible for the Duomo

bottega

A workshop

braccio
(pl.
braccia
)

A measurement of about 22 and 7/8ths inches, according to Charles Seymour, but variable

compagnacci

‘The bad or ugly companions’ – aristocratic pro-Medici faction in Florence

condottiere

A leader of a band of mercenary

(pl.
condottieri
)

soldiers

fanciulli
(sing.
fanciullo
)

Literally ‘children’, specifically the boys who carried out Savonarola’s wishes

fratesco
(pl.
frateschi
)

‘A follower of the friar’(Girolamo Savonarola)

gonfaloniere

The chief magistrate of the city

lizzatura

A method of sliding marble down a row of planks

natura morta

A ‘still life’ in art

Opera del Duomo

The workshop for work on the cathedral

Operai del Duomo

Officials of the Opera del Duomo

paneficio

A baker’s shop

picchiapietre

A stonecutter

piagnone
(pl.
piagnoni
)

‘A weeper’ – impolite name for a follower of Savonarola

practica

A public inquiry

scalpellino

Another word for a stonecutter

Signoria

The seat of government in Florence

vernaccia

A dry white wine

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my dear Florentine friend, Carla Poesio, for reading the text and putting me right about beer. Also to my quasi-Venetian friend, Michelle Lovric, for doing the same but without the beer. Living near Oxford as I do, I am always so grateful to be able to use the Bodleian, Taylorian and Sackler Libraries and this time I was also able to look at Michelangelo drawings in the Ashmolean Museum.

Among the many, many books and articles I read,
Michelangelo’s David: A Search for Identity
by Charles Seymour Jr (1967), Saul Levine’s 1984 article about Michelangelo’s lost bronze
David
, and Frederick Hartt’s
David by the Hand of Michelangelo
(1987) were the most influential. Absolutely invaluable was R. Barr Litchfield’s
Online Gazetteer of Sixteenth Century Florence
(2006).

And I never attempt to write any historical novel without the assistance of the indispensable London Library, of which I am a happy Country Member.

Also by Mary Hoffman

Troubadour

The Falconer’s Knot

The Stravaganza Sequence

City of Masks

City of Stars

City of Flowers

City of Secrets

City of Ships

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

First published in Great Britain in July 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © Mary Hoffman 2011

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