The House of Medici

Starred review from April 15, 2015
Oh, that wacky Medici family! The dominant force in Florentine life during the Renaissance, those folks just naturally attract the interest of historical novelists, and the reason for that is fully demonstrated in this short (for a historical novel, that is) but imaginatively structured novel that teaches the reader in no uncertain terms all about the banking power held in the hands of the Medicis and how that translated into political power. The premise is this: now in old age, the black mistress of the powerful Cosimo de' Medici and mother of his son, the Cardinal Medici, reminisces about her years at the Medici court from the perspective of having been installed in a convent near Florence. In doing so, Cosimo was not trying to discard her but to use her smarts to protect the gold that Cosimo had hidden from the two sons he had no faith in to ensure it passed safely on to his very able grandson, who will become the great Renaissance figure, Lorenzo de' Medici. From this relatively simple plot emerges a vivid tapestry of Florentine history at a time when that city was most significant in European affairs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)