The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White

Now, following a seemingly unrelated trail of clues-a name whispered in the marketplace by a hooded monk, a secret message Sandro Botticelli has painted in a fresco in the Vespucci church-Guid’Antonio and Amerigo chase across fifteenth-century Florence to the workshops of Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli, to churches where colorful frescoes fly off the walls, from Florence to San Gimignano, where the kidnapped girl disappeared, and, finally, to the hilltop town of Vinci, where Guid'Antonio uncovers the thought-provoking truth about the girl and the Virgin Mary's mysterious-and miraculous?-tears. A young girl has been kidnapped, and a centuries-old painting of the Virgin Mary is weeping in Guid'Antonio and Amerigo's family church.įearful Florentines interpret these disturbing events as signs of God's wrath for their support of the city's leader, Lorenzo de' Medici, and Lorenzo's refusal to end his personal war with Pope Sixtus IV.įaced with losing control of the city, Lorenzo enlists Guid'Antonio to investigate the weeping painting. (Dec.In the summer of 1480, Florentine lawyer Guid’Antonio Vespucci and his nephew, Amerigo, return home to Italy from a wartime mission only to find their dreams of peace shattered. Backed up by sure-handed storytelling and scrupulous research into the period, White creates richly evocative descriptions of Renaissance-era Florence certain to please the amateur historian and armchair tourist. Tasked with investigating by city leader Lorenzo de’ Medici, who’s preoccupied by his war against the pope, Guid’Antonio partners with his favorite nephew, Amerigo, and uncovers even more mystery, including a secret message painted by artist Sandro Botticelli on the church’s wall. The Florentines are equally abuzz, though, over a painting of the Virgin Mary in Guid’Antonio’s family church that has miraculously begun to shed tears. Other books include Come Next Spring, a coming of age novel set in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee in the.

Both are set at the height of the Italian Renaissance in Florence, Italy. Returning from a government mission, he finds his home city distraught over the kidnapping of a wealthy young woman, Camilla Rossi da Vinci, supposedly by Turks. Alana White is the author of the Guid'Antonio Vespucci mystery series, whose titles include The Sign of the Weeping Virgin (1) and The Hearts of All on Fire (2). Fans of historical mysteries will thoroughly enjoy this chance to visit the Italy of 1480 in the company of real-life historical figure Guid’Antonio Vespucci, a Florence lawyer.

The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White