SIGNORA DA VINCI

Author: Robin Maxwell ISBN: 9780758211408 1/2009 HISTORICAL FICTION Publisher: NAL
Time Period: 1400s

Caterina was fifteen years old in 1452 when she bore an illegitimate child in the tiny village of Vinci. His name was Leonardo, and he was destined to change the world forever. Caterina suffered much cruelty as an unmarried mother and had no recourse when her boy was taken away from her. But no one knew the secrets of her own childhood, nor could ever have imagined the dangerous and heretical scheme she would devise to protect and watch over her remarkable son. This is her story.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Robin Maxwell sets her historical romance SIGNORA DA VINCI in the 1400s in Florence, Rome, and Milan, Italy, where Caterina da Vinci finds a way to follow the life and times of her boisterous son, as well as making a life for herself disguised as a man in order to move about freely in society. But how can it be a romance if her compatriots all believe her to be Cato da Vinci? Leave it to Lorenzo de Medici to declare his love while still being confused at falling in love with a man. But this is only the least of Cato’s problems. The Spanish Inquisition inspires Fra Savonarola to crack down on Florence’s excesses, reining in conspicuous spending, ostentatious clothing, and heretical learning by sending out crews of young zealots to remove books, artwork, and colorful silk clothing from his parishioners’ homes and throwing them on the bonfire of the vanities. As an apothecary with training in the arts of alchemy, Caterina/Cato is living on the edge and on borrowed time before the great preacher discovers her heresy, and it will be trouble from which even a de Medici cannot save her.

Maxwell is a master storyteller! With just two absolute facts about Leonardo da Vinci’s mother—that she gave birth to her son unmarried to his father Piero, and that Piero’s family ripped him from her life the day after his birth to raise him—she weaves together a brilliant tale of romance, art, political intrigue, and the quest for knowledge. The story is populated with many real personages and their actions, as well as cleverly invented characters who add color and flair to this beautiful fabric. The most intriguing aspect for me is how she creates ways for Caterina to become Cato in a world where women lived in the shadows of their fathers and husbands, excluded from education, commerce, and even many of the decisions for their family. Caterina has the advantage of training as an apothecary and alchemist at her father’s side. It enables her to move from Vinci to Florence, set up shop on her own and maintain contact with her beloved son. And I have to admit that when I found the recipe in the back of the book for a grape and olive compote that Cato/Caterina often made and served with goat cheese and crackers, I was in seventh heaven. Maxwell had me nearly drooling with her discussions of the multitude of feasts, family dinners and snacks served up as the characters discussed issues of state, the arts or philosophy.

I don’t often read the bibliographic information and readers’ notes at the end of a very satisfying story because I fear losing the magic by pulling back the curtain on the writer’s craft, research, and thinking. This time I read it all; and if I only had more time, I’d invest in a little da Vinci research of my own.

Signora da Vinci is the story of a life well lived, despite seemingly insurmountable odds. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with this period in history all over again. Maxwell stays true to facts while weaving in her additions, which serve as credible supposition. Readers who enjoy history, Italy, romance, food and art, will find a brilliantly entertaining story.

Susan Barton