Colorful primary sources such as Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Emminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. de Vère (New York: AMS Press, 1976; first published in Rome, 1550) and Iris Origo, The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini 1335–1410 (Boston: David R. Godine Publisher, 1986) helped bring the world of Renaissance Prato and Florence to life. The texture and details of many scenes in our novel benefited from the excellent information available in works on the daily life of Renaissance Italy including Elisabeth S. Cohen and Thomas V. Cohen, Daily Life in Renaissance Italy (London/Westport: Greenport Press, 2001); Christiane Klapish-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); and Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1999). Information on herbs and herbal remedies was drawn primarily from the Internet source www.botanical.com.
WORKS BY FRA FILIPPO LIPPI MENTIONED IN
The Miracles of Prato
Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement
About 1435–1436
Panel, 122.6 x 62.8 cm.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Barbadori Altarpiece
Begun 1437; finished c. 1439
Panel, 208 x 244 cm.
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Coronation of the Virgin (the Maringhi Coronation)
1439–1447
Panel, 200 x 287 cm.
Uffizi, Florence
The Annunciation
Late 1430s–1440
Panel, 175 x 183 cm.
San Lorenzo, Florence
The Madonna del Ceppo (Madonna and Child with Saint Stephen, Saint John the Baptist, Francesco di Marco Datini, and Four Buonomini of the Hospital of the Ceppo of Prato)
1453
Panel, 187 x 120 cm.
Galleria Communale di Palazzo Pretario, Prato
Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Michael, side wings of the now lost Adoration triptych for King Alfonso of Naples
1456–1458
Masonite (transferred from panel), each 81.3 x 29.8 cm.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
The Death of Saint Jerome
Early to mid 1450s
Panel, 268 x 165 cm.
Cathedral of Santo Stefano, Prato
The Madonna della Cintola with Saints Margaret, Gregory, Augustine, and Raphael with Tobias
Late 1455 to mid 1460s
Panel, 191 x 187 cm.
Galleria Communale di Palazzo Pretario, Prato
Lives of Saints Stephen and John
1452–1465
Frescoes
Main chapel, Cathedral of Santo Stefano, Prato
All other works in the novel are the invention of the authors.
About the Authors
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. Please visit her website at www.laurielicoalbanese.com.
Her best friend and coauthor, LAURA MOROWITZ, is an associate 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.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
ALSO BY LAURIE ALBANESE
Blue Suburbia: Almost a Memoir
ALSO BY LAURA MOROWITZ
Consuming the Past:
The Medieval Revival in Fin-de-siècle France
(with Elizabeth Emery)
Artistic Brotherhoods in the Nineteenth Century
(with William Vaughan)
Credits
Jacket design by Mary Schuck
Jacket photograph © The Bridgeman Art Library
Jacket painting: The Madonna of the Sacred Girdle by Fra Filippo Lippi © Museo Civico, Prato, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE MIRACLES OF PRATO. Copyright © 2009 by Laurie Lico Albanese and Laura Morowitz. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition DECEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061984556
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com