the picture in her book Botticelli’s Primavera: A Botanical Interpretation Including Astrology, Alchemy and the Medici. How-ever, this book owes the most to the work of Professor Enrico Guidoni of the University of Rome. It was he who posited the idea that the figures represent Italian cities and suggested the painting concealed a Medici design to unify Italy. The professor’s arguments can be fully explored in his work La Prima-vera di Botticelli: L’armonia tra le città nell’Italia di Lorenzo il Magnifico. I have respectfully named my most learned character, Guido, after him.
It should be emphasized, however, that this novel is a work of fiction, and that, with respect to the work of the scholars here named, any additions, omissions, or alterations of characters, events, or places are my own.
A Reading Group Gold
Selection
Reading Group Gold
THE BOTTICELLI SECRET
by Marina Fiorato
About the Author
• A Conversation with Marina Fiorato
Behind the Novel
• “Botticelli and the Art of Reading a Painting”
An Original Essay by the Author
Keep on Reading
• Recommended Reading
• Reading Group Questions
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visit www.readinggroupgold.com.
ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN
About the Author
A Conversation with Marina Fiorato
“I’ve always found [Flora] particularly captivating… she really steps out of the frame.”
What inspired you to write The Botticelli Secret?
The painting, first and last. It’s been my favorite picture ever since I saw it in the Uffizi as a teenager. The scale, the color of it, and the intensity of detail really captured my attention, then and ever since. I’ve always found the figure of Flora particularly captivating; I find her expression deliciously intriguing. She really steps out of the frame. I’ve always wondered what she is thinking—and this book is my answer to that question.
What does La Primavera mean to you? What about it do you wish to reveal to your readers?
I read an article in the Times about an Italian academic named Enrico Guidoni who had come up with a new theory about La Primavera, and the meaning of each of the figures. There have been so many interpretations of the painting over the years, but this one struck me as being completely convincing. So it formed the spine of the novel. It’s meaningful because I think it completely encapsulates that period of the Renaissance in almost every aspect—fashion, belief systems, patronage, symbolism, even botany. As to what I’d like to reveal to my readers the answer is simple: Italy!
You have already written about Renaissance Italy in your previous novel, The Glassblower of Murano. How, if at all, was the process of writing The Botticelli Secret different for you? Also, in crafting your story about Botticelli, did you stick solely to the facts? Or did you take any artistic liberties?
Writing Botticelli was a very different experience from writing Glassblower. For one thing, it’s all written in first-person, from the point of view of Luciana, the model for Botticelli’s Flora. Also, this novel is wholly set in the past, where as Glassblower had a split timeline between past and present. One of the major differences was the humor: Luciana is such a flawed, earthy character; the contrast between her demeanor and language and the more buttoned-up, erudite Brother Guido was a rich seam of comedy. Luciana’s language is certainly more colorful than any I’ve ever used before—I miss her already!
Because this book is so dependent on its premise, I was much less strict with the facts than I’ve been with other works. I tried not to be overtly anachronistic—there are no digital watches!—but for Botticelli it was more important to stay true to the ethos and feel of the period than to be too pernickety about dates and details. So some people are in cities they may not have been in, or I’ve imagined events that may not have happened at all. I’ve always maintained that historical novels should not be taken as hard fact, but more of a jumping-off point for readers to research the period if what they read sparks their interest in history. I’d be delighted if that happens with my readers.
THE PONTE VECCHIO
“When I open a historical novel I’m taking a trip to a different land.”
Why do you enjoy writing historical fiction? Why do you do you think readers are so drawn to historical novels?
L.P. Hartley wrote: “The past is another country, they do things differently there.” I think this is exactly right and it’s at the root of our fascination with historical novels. I find everything about the Renaissance period utterly absorbing; the people dressed differently, spoke differently, ate different things, and had different belief