Pallas and the Centaur: A Novel Set in Italy in the Time of Lorenzo De' Medici 1478-1480

Following the murders committed by the Pazzi Conspiracy, Lorenzo de' Medici sends his family out to the country under the care of Angelo Poliziano. Tommaso divides his time between Marsilio Ficino, whose translation of Plato he is helping to complete, and Poliziano, who is becoming increasingly helpless under the bitter onslaught of Lorenzo's wife, Clarice. The domestic conflict is a microcosm of Tuscany at war. Poliziano's sister, Maria, a survivor when her convent is razed by soldiers, makes her way to Florence to find the brother she barely knows. Together with Lorenzo's mother and Tommaso's wife, Maria works to find peace at a transcendental level. In the end, the fate of Florence hinges on one woman: Lorenzo's wife, Clarice.