The mystery of Simonetta

the long version

"Among the many masterpieces in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence are two of the world's best-loved and most enigmatic paintings, Botticelli's "La Primavera" and "Birth of Venus." The woman chosen to portray the springtime and the goddess of love was the great muse of the Renaissance, whose beauty inspired painters, poets, and philosophers. Simonetta Vespucci was the embodiment of the Renaissance ideal, with her blonde tresses, pale skin, and languid gaze. Although she became immortal through art and lived on in the city's memory, she died at the tender age of twenty-two in obscure circumstances. Claudio Angelini makes the world of Renaissance Florence come alive in a work that is part historical fiction, part mystery, and part journey through time."--book jacket.