The Miracles of Prato: A Novel

by Laurie Albanese, Laura Morowitz

Overview

"Richly textured Renaissance romance. . . . [A]n irresistibly passionate novel steeped in art, history, and the miracles wrought by love." —Booklist
Italy, 1456. The Renaissance is in glorious bloom. A Carmelite monk, the great artist Fra Filippo Lippi acts as chaplain to the nuns of the Convent Santa Margherita. It is here that he encounters the greatest temptation of his life, beautiful Lucrezia Buti, who has been driven to holy orders more by poverty than piety. In Lucrezia's flawless face Lippi sees the inspiration for countless Madonnas and he brings the young woman to his studio to serve as his model. But as painter and muse are united in an exhilarating whirl of artistic discovery, a passionate love develops, one that threatens to destroy them both even as it fuels some of Lippi's greatest work.
"Like Fra Filippo's paintings, this love story, set in one of the most intriguing historical periods, is suffused with clear, warm color and fine attention to detail." —Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad
"This novel . . . will be lapped up by fans of historical romance." —Publishers Weekly
"The Miracles of Prato is a time machine, taking the reader back to the height of the Italian Renaissance." —Eleanor Herman, author of Mistress of the Vatican
"Richly detailed and thoroughly engrossing . . . a poignant portrayal of the heartbreak of two people caught in the Church's grip during the Italian Renaissance." —Judith Lindbergh, author of The Thrall's Tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061984556
Publisher:	HarperCollins e-books
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	402
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Laurie Albanese is the author of the novel Lynelle by the Sea and the memoir Blue Suburbia, which was named a Book Sense Best Book of the Year and was an Entertainment Weekly Editor's Choice selection.

Laura Morowitz is a professor of art history and coauthor of Consuming the Past: The Medieval Revival in Fin-de-Siècle France. They both live in New Jersey with their families.

Editorial Reviews

In Renaissance Italy, a painter who happens to be a monk models his frescos of the Blessed Virgin on a stunning maiden who happens to be a nun, in this dually written debut. Fra (Brother) Filippo Lippi, of Prato, Tuscany, owes frescos and altarpieces to two churches, a merchant, a king and a very curmudgeonly guild of bankers. His reputation for down-to-earth representations of Mary and the saints has garnered him many commissions, but his weakness for wine, women and procrastination leaves him perpetually short of time and money. Fortunately, his patrons, the Medicis, have secured him a post as chaplain of the Convent of Santa Margherita, where two young siblings, Lucrezia and Spinetta, newly impoverished daughters of a recently deceased and posthumously disgraced Florentine silk merchant, have lately been enrolled as novices. Filippo is bedazzled when he meets Lucrezia in the garden of her elderly mentor, Sister Pureza. After a slow setup involving minute examination of Filippo's craft and much diffidence about Lucrezia and Filippo's growing attachment as she poses as his Madonna, the action finally accelerates. Lecherous prelate Prior Saviano catches Lucrezia alone in Filippo's studio and rapes her. Filippo refuses to let Lucrezia return to the convent, which is under Saviano's control. The two enter into informal matrimony with the blessing of a priest friend. Lucrezia's pregnancy causes a scandal. The irate bankers vandalize Filippo's studio and his chaotic domestic arrangements impede his creativity. After Lucrezia gives birth, her son is spirited away on Saviano's orders. Sadly, the most riveting portion of the book, the hunt for the missing infant, occupies too few pages. In aforegone conclusion, the sacred Belt of the Blessed Virgin (an actual relic still housed in Prato) proves to be the salvation of the good and the ruination, or at least containment, of the bad. Despite the convincing historical backdrop, the one-dimensional characters, whether invented or real, can't sustain interest over long stretches of exposition. Agent: Marly Rusoff/Marly Rusoff & Associates

Kirkus Reviews

Richly textured Renaissance romance. …[T]he authors have fashioned an irresistibly passionate novel steeped in art, history, and the miracles wrought by love.

Booklist on MIRACLES OF PRATO

A richly detailed and thoroughly engrossing story told with equal measures of ardor, tenderness, and compassion, THE MIRACLES OF PRATO offers a poignant portrayal of the heartbreak of two people caught in the Church’s grip during the Italian Renaissance.

Judith Lindbergh

The Miracles of Prato is a time machine, taking the reader back to the height of the Italian Renaissance, revealing a world of childlike innocence and illicit passion, harsh injustice and saintly miracles, and wafting around it all like rare perfume, the creation of art for the glory of God.

Eleanor Herman

Like Fra Filippo’s paintings, this love story, set in one of the most intriguing historical periods, is suffused with clear, warm color and fine attention to detail.

Debra Dean