Showing titles in Renaissance

The new novel from the author of the much-loved Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are a set of six medieval tapestries. Beautiful, intricate and expertly made, they are also mysterious in their origin and meaning. Tapestries give an appearance of...

#1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory brings to life the story of Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, a woman of passion and of legend who navigated a treacherous path through the battle lines in the War of the Roses to bring her family...

What if your temporary deception became an inescapable trap and forcibly determined your destiny? In fifteenth-century Venice, a city of power and intrigue, lives are shaped by class, reputation, and fate, and for some, by the fragile boundaries between identity and survival. Caterina, the spirited daughter of a wealthy Venetian merchant, is expected to follow the rigid path laid out for Renaissance women: obedience, arranged marriage, and silent acceptance. But when her defiance sparks scandal, she is subjected to a punishment designed to break her will and reshape her future.

November, 1583. Desperate not to let the Protestant Low Countries fall into the hands of the Catholic Spain, the Queen’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, orders Cambridge scholar and novice spy, Christopher Marlowe, to assist the beleaguered Dutch leader, William the Silent, whose court is a hotbed of intrigue and treachery. However, travelling in disguise as part of a troupe of Egyptian players, Marlowe encounters trouble even before he reaches Dutch shores.

It is 1612. Maria and Antonio set off to the Frankfurt fair to find a buyer for their wine, and expand their vineyard. They find a buyer, and Maria finds an admirer. When they visit the man preparing their bill of exchange, he and his wife have been strangled.

France, 1670. On her sixteenth birthday, Sylvienne d’Aubert thinks her dream has come true. She holds in her hands an invitation from King Louis XIV to attend his royal court. However, her mother harbors a longtime secret she's kept from both her daughter and the monarch, a secret that could upend Sylvienne’s life. In Paris, Sylvienne is quickly swept up in the romance, opulence, and excitement of royal life.

The country is in turmoil in this thrilling historical adventure of the English Civil War. It is 1643, and the struggle between Parliament and the King erupts in the West Country, tearing families apart and setting village against village. But for some, this fight is not only about crown and country: it is far more personal than that. Royalist soldier Hugo Telling wishes Parliamentarian William Sparrow dead. This rivalry will take them across battlefields the breadth of England, and all for the love of a beautiful woman.

How far would you go to keep a deathbed promise? Surrounded by the bodies of slain monarchs, a dying prince extracts a promise from his friend, Horatio: “Tell my story”. Rival kings of warring nations strive to lay claim to the throne, now vacant, but what will happen to the people who live there, at Helsingør’s Krogen Castle? How will Horatio preserve his honor and the prince’s legacy while surviving this murderous kingdom and the men who would rule it? This historical adventure story tells the fictional tale of how Horatio’s oath gave birth to the legend of Hamlet.

London Tales is a collection of short stories from Tim Walker that offer dramatic pinpricks in the rich tapestry of London's timeline, a city with two thousand years of history. The stories offer glimpses of imagined lives and dramatic moments, starting with a tribal perspective on the Roman invasion followed by the terror of Boudica's destruction of the fledgling city.

Les Cenci conte la révolte, le courage et le drame de Beatrix Cenci, abusée par son père, sorte de Don Juan sans scrupule. Par cette chronique italienne, Stendhal nous livre sa vision du mythe de Don Juan et nous fait pénétrer dans la violence des passions de l'Italie renaissante. Si le thème est éminemment romantique, l'analyse précise des sentiments et des mobiles de chacun est d'une grande modernité.

A new queen must prove she deserves the throne God gave her, while the path everyone insists will secure it might cost her everything.Against all odds, Elizabeth Tudor has become Queen of England. Determined to fulfill what she sees as a divine responsibility, she sets out to heal a country...

1561. Europe is a house of cards, shaken by a religious upheaval that threatens to topple the existing structures of power entirely. France, long a force of strength in the known world, has lost two kings in as many years. Holding the country together by a thread is Catherine de Medici, Queen...

England has fallen, the King is in exile, and the Stuart court wanders Europe without money, security or a home. Living amongst them is Henry Nash—a loyal servant, reluctant spy, and a young woman concealed beneath a gentleman's clothes. In the glittering yet desperately world surrounding the exiled King Charles II, Henry moves easily through royal chambers, taverns, tennis courts, and whispered conspiracies.

This is the first of the Anne of Athelhampton trilogy, which is inspired by true historical events and characters from England's Dorsetshire in the 1500s. It is written by Giles Keating, who lives in Athelhampton's Tudor rooms just as Anne did five hundred years ago and who welcomes visitors to see the secret passages that she discovered, and the symbols in stone that she searched out to solve the Riddle.

This is a tale of adventure on the high seas, piracy, vengeance and action, set in the Caribbean seas from Port Royal to Tortuga. Follow Captain Mary and the crew of the Jenny’s Revenge as they hunt some of the most notorious and violent pirates in history, including Blackbeard himself!

NATIONAL BESTSELLER In Renaissance Florence, a young artist searching for her missing mother is discovered by arch-rivals Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci In Tuscany during the early 1500s, Beatrice, a peasant girl, finds herself alone in the countryside after her father is killed and her...

Scarlett is a university graduate with a master’s in biophysics. Artie is a retired professor of art history. They’ve been hired by a wealthy collector to authenticate a cache of paintings discovered under the floorboards of an Italian townhouse. The two women take an instant dislike to each other. The calculus shifts when they stumble on something unexpected—a manuscript written by Leonardo da Vinci’s last pupil. It’s an astonishing firsthand account of the great master as he grapples with a murder at the prestigious Aldine Press.

The latest action packed novel from Vincent FormosaIt has been a long war for Tim Chavell. A veteran of operations in France, Malta, the Adriatic, and off the Dutch coast, he is long overdue for a rest. Instead, he finds himself posted to Scotland to take command of a Mosquito strike wing at RAF Aberdour. In headlong retreat, the Germans are being pressured from all sides. The iron ore that keeps heavy industry going comes from a precarious supply line that must be protected at all costs.

UNA MISSIONE PERICOLOSA. UN TRADIMENTO IMPERDONABILE. UN SEGRETO NASCOSTO NEI MEANDRI DEL TEMPO. 1584. Da poco arrivato in Inghilterra dalla Francia, Tom Lutton, giovane erborista sordomuto, viene ingaggiato come assistente dallo speziale di corte e per una serie di circostanze fortuite entra nelle grazie della sovrana. Donna di acuta intelligenza, Elisabetta I intuisce subito quanto possa rivelarsi utile un domestico che non può parlare né sentire e tuttavia riesce a capire ciò che si dice attorno a lui, e in breve lo trasforma nella sua spia personale.

Baudet’s destiny is foreshadowed by a mysterious old woman in black, who predicts he will accomplish great things in his life. Leaving his village of Vordan in 1673, he plans to forge a new life in Marseilles. Finding lodging in a tavern, he makes fast friends with Father Philippe of the church in the poor quarter of Panier. Unwittingly, he is drawn to the Abbey Saint Victor across the harbor, where his future is to be with the Benedictine Order of monks.