Botticelli Trilogy

Pallas and the Centaur is the second part of 'The Botticelli Trilogy.' Following the Pazzi Conspiracy, Florence finds itself at war with Rome and Naples. Lorenzo de' Medici, whose brother was murdered by the Pazzi, has no doubt that he has God on his side. His wife, Clarice, is not so sure. Roman-born and pious she is in every way a medieval woman and believes that the troubles besetting the family are due to Lorenzo's 'heresy', that is, his Platonism. Lorenzo sends her to safety, under the protection of Angelo Poliziano. Powerless against her husband, Clarice sets out to destroy the poet.

The domestic conflicts reflect – in fact, are intimately connected with – world affairs. As Lorenzo's marriage falls apart, so does his hold on the power-politics of Florence and Italy. Events move to dramatic conclusions that explode each character's beliefs and certainties.
The war is not just between Florence and Rome but is a battle between the medieval world and the Renaissance, between superstitious Christianity and Christian Platonism, between faith and reason, between a woman and a man. It is the battle of Juno and Zeus.

The Rebirth of Venus is the last part of The Botticelli Trilogy, following A Tabernacle for the Sun and Pallas and the Centaur. Set in the 1480s and 90s, it tells the story of murder, not only of the leading men of the age, but of the age itself, the Renaissance dying in Savonarola's bonfires. Tommaso de' Maffei was charged with the task of taking the Platonic wisdom to England, but in England he finds he has lost touch with the truth of his philosophy, and he returns to Italy in the early 16th century to find what, if anything, survives from the golden age he lived through.