A tabernacle for the sun : a novel set in Florence in the time of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1472-1478

A Tabernacle for the Sun is a novel set in the Florence of Lorenzo de' Medici and is the first part of The Botticelli Trilogy. It is the story of a boy torn between his loyalty to his family and that to his city, governed by the Medici. He wants to leave the world behind in his pursuit of the new Platonic philosophy, but the world won't let him go. Volterra, 1472, and a young orphan called Tommaso dreams of becoming a scribe in Medicean Florence. His dreams come true, but not in the way he expected them to, and war pitches him into the city of Lorenzo de' Medici. His cousin, Antonio, tries to enlist his help in a conspiracy to murder Lorenzo. Tommaso, now living and working with men who are members of the Platonic Academy wishes to enter the Academy himself but to do so he must make his peace with the keeper of its gates - Lorenzo. Torn, he does not know his own mind and heart until fate forces his arm. Freedom - is it Florence without the Medici, or a condition of the soul? This is the question facing Tommaso de' Maffei, an apprentice scribe who cannot forgive Lorenzo de' Medici for sacking his native city of Volterra. But if he would join the Platonic Academy and take the journey of the soul, he must reconcile himself to Lorenzo. Meanwhile his family draws him into a conspiracy against the Medici. To avoid the turmoil, both inner and outer, he takes refuge in the painter's workshop where his friend, Filippino, is an apprentice The young Tommaso dei Maffei is forced to leave his native Volterra after its destruction by the forces of his idol, Lorenzo de'Medici, the ruler of Florence. So he is taken to Florence and apprenticed as a scribe, during a time of political and social upheaval, and an imminent uprising.