Readers may wonder what in Bianca’s Cure actually did happen. How much of the real Bianca is in my story? In many ways we only know the scaffolding—for example, that she was from Venice, that Francesco had restored a palace for her,
Bianca Capello, 1580 (Alessandro Allori) Palace of Bianca Capello in Via Maggio, Florence (author photo)
and that she married the Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici, after a romance of many years, and in grand style. Her love affairs had been sensationalized by certain authors, her beauty by others. And we know that Francesco has a burial place, the Chapel of the Princes, in Florence—and Bianca Capello does not.
And what of her alchemy? Bianca in fact had a study to herself, a small room in Palazzo Vecchio, accessed via a hidden passageway from the chapel or through a secret door behind a panel in the Map Room. In the novel, this is the preferred meeting spot for the two lovers. It exists, and it’s possible to see it on one of the palace’s many tours.
But, as with any history, we know only part of the story. In Bianca’s Cure, the heroine is beautiful, but, what does that matter?
What Mama had really
said was that some people would hate Bianca for being pretty, and
some people would love her for it, but that pretty was just like anything
else, something she could use. All Bianca knew was that she
couldn’t use it to make friends with her cousins. They’d stopped
wanting to be seen with her because they said she made them look
ugly. “I don’t care about pretty. Once I’m a scientist, I’m going to cut
off all my hair and cover my face with clay.”
Bianca is a strong character, from a young age, fully realizing what that meant. As her aunties warned her early on,
[her aunties] spoke again before Bianca could draw a breath. “Listen to me: strong
gets noticed. When we make a little noise, we’re seen, then we’re vulnerable.“
All the while, caring deeply for the man she loved
Strange: instead of making a cure to save hundreds, she was thinking now about making a cure to save this one man.
Finally, a word or two of appreciation to those who helped me create the character of Bianca
To my university, for making research and exploration in Florence possible
To the exceptional art historian, Raffaello Bocciolini, for his insights
To Stefano Corazzini, for writing the beautiful Il Granduca innamorato
And to the brilliant and sensitive linguist, Annamaria Giganti (whose daughter is the novelist, Fulvia Bonaiuti,) for the first germ of a story. It was Annamaria who had walked across the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata with me so many years ago, chatting about the legend of the open window and pointing to it as we crossed the piazza, inspiring me to research more of Bianca’s story and imagine just a little more of her life.
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