In Florenzer, Melanson gives readers a historical novel brimming with politics, sex, and murder, that dives into the complexities of queer life in Renaissance-era Florence. This lush, louche historical drama reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men—a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo.

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More about Florenzer

Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets.

Brash and breathtaking, this enthralling tale explores the tension between our understanding of historical Florence as a haven for “florenzers,” or gay men such as Leonardo, and the precarious reality for these men, who were at constant risk of persecution. Heavily researched by queer author Melanson, Leonardo is willfully placed at the story’s center as a queer man whose identity has been notably omitted or downplayed by most historical accounts. Mining the origins of one of history’s finest artists and the city where he came of age, Florenzer defies previous erasure of his sexuality and imagines a boldly queer life for young Leonardo. At the core of this novel is, as Melanson writes, “the young Leonardo da Vinci, a true florenzer: a man who came of age in Florence, and one who openly loved other men.”

Phil Melanson is a graduate of New York University and the University of Warwick. A former movie marketer for Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures, he now lectures in film and television for Boston University. He lives in London.