From the cover:

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from nothern Europe to decorate the family chapel in their Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by his talent. As Medici Florence is threatened by the hellfire of the monk Savonarola, the painter and his dazling art exert an ever more powerful and erotic pull.

A long read, perhaps it was my frame of mind. But I did enjoy it.

It's the opening chapter of the book that got me curious as to how the ending would be...The Narrator, Alessandra, is a gem of a girl :-) but I'm not going to ruin it for anyone else :-) I'm going to offer this out on a bookray instead and see where it ends up.

Rules of this bookray:

1) When you receive the book please ensure that you journal it.
2) Read it as soon as you can.
3) When you've finished reading it, make a journal entry and contact the next person on the list.
4) If no response is received after two attempts, contact me and then next person on the list.
5) When you send the book on make a journal entry.
6) Enjoy!!

The following is a list of participants to date:

Fofum- UK (ship int'l)
maupi - NL (ship int'l)
scrawler - Poland (shi int'l)
boreal - NZ (ship int'l)
missJas- US (ship int'l)
Rrrcaron- US (ship int'l)
Catwoman- Canada (ship int'l)
vicki9170 - US (ship int'l)
Mom-of-one - US (ship int'l)
omly - US (ship US only)
MollyGrue - US (ship US only)
Zarylia - US & Pol (ship int'l)
fizzfred - US (ship int'l)
Lpree - US (ship int'l)
morpha - US (ship int'l)
Monast - Malaysia

then off into the wild!

Thanks for joining this bookray :-)

Released on Saturday, May 08, 2004 at Sent to a fellow BookCrosser in Controlled release, England United Kingdom.

Sent to Fofum today! enjoy!

Arrived earlier this week. What a beautiful cover - I have a couple to finish before starting...Half Term looms and I think it's just the job for that! Thanks for sending it on.

I loved this. I have been rather overrun by life in general over the last couple of months and have not really been able to get lost in a novel for ages...but this one did it! The mix of history of Florence, Art and fiction was fantastic. The characters were complex and interesting, the plot and subplots well intertwined and the language rich and opulent as befitted the story!
Thank you so much for passing this on and for being so patient with me - I know it has taken me a long while to get around to reading it, but I am really glad that I did. My Mum who is visiting at the moment has picked it up and that might delay its posting date - but not by long, I'm sure!

Thanks Fofum, received it!
I'm in the middle of move (moving in 3 days, arrgh), this book goes into the TBR box ...

I loved this book, really loved it and could hardly put it down (though I had to because I do have to work too ...).
It was interesting, fascinating, moving; a wonderful book. I still have this book about the Medici's which I've been planning to read for a long time now, but I certainly will soon. It is actually in the bibliography Dunant gives as reference.
Thank you Leighspeek for sharing.
Now waiting for Scrawler's address to send it on.

Just received this yesterday and I can't wait to start this. I'm alsmot done with Little Women (another bookring) and as soon as I am I will get to work reading this one!

Oh my goodness I've held on to this for a long time. I'm so sorry for holding up the ring. I have boreal's address and will be sending it on ASAP.
I really, really enjoyed this book, I was completely swept up by it. So thank you, Leighspeak for sharing and hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did!

I found this in my mailbox this morning when we returned from our Saturday morning shopping expedition. I have been looking forward to this one and will make a start on it within the next week or so. Thanks for sending it all the way to NZ Scrawler and thanks for starting the ray Leighspeak!

Lovely book, I really enjoyed being transported back to medieval Florence and I learnt a lot about politics and art at the same time. It is always nice to see a list of the references used at the back of the book, it shows that the author has been serious about her research, and gives us a starting point if we want to learn more.
I used to read a lot of books in this genre but haven't of late so it was a refreshing change.
I have MissJas's address so I will get this in the post to her very soon.
Thanks for sharing!
Edited to say I posted this soon after writing this entry.

Received and finished! I was captured from the start. I love the history woven into it. I know nothing of art, but Dunant's talents brought the beauty to life in my imagination.
Thank you for sharing the book. Will send off as soon as I have a reply from the next on the list.

I received this book in the mail today. Hope to start it soon. Ruth

What a wonderful book this was.The story of Alassandra Cecchi is one I won't soon forget. Her passion for art, and the artist, was so desciptively told. If I hadn't held the book for so long in the first place, I would have read t a second time before moving it along. Sarah Dunant is a wonderful author, and I will be looking for more of her books in the future. Thanks so much for sharing this book!!! Catwoman asked to be skipped, so I am sending this along to vicki9170 in Florida today via priority mail.
Ruth