"Bianca" is a novel loosely based on the life of Francesco de Medici and Lady Bianca Capello. Francesco was a member of the long line of Italy’s famous ruling family and was in power for a little over 20 years in the 1500s. According to historical sources, he was not a popular leader of the people of Florence. Furthermore, Bianca did not help redeem his negative image.

Bianca was a feminist- strong willed and defiant. She came from one of the richest and most noble families of Venice, though no one in Florence was impressed. Venice was a city the Florentines found to be course and repulsive. She ran away from home at the age of 16 to avoid an arranged marriage, opting to elope with a virtual stranger. But Bianca’s real claim to fame was her very public torrid affair with Francesco de Medici that lasted over a decade and her eventual marriage to him following the death of his wife. Not that infidelity was frowned upon… rather quite the opposite. But being in love with your mistress, especially a “manipulating” Venetian woman, that was taboo. And then marrying her? Heaven forbid!

But this is Bianca’s story, told from her point of view. And she does draw sympathy from the reader. Her first husband turned out to be a scoundrel who was only after her money. He used her and abused her, and had no problem playing the role of a pimp and financially dependent husband. Bianca’s one true love was Francesco and she devoted her life to him.

Robert Elegant is a British American journalist and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
One of the appealing things about Bianca is the rich descriptions about life in Italy during the Renaissance. Elegant offers many details about the social life and cultural attitudes, the cut-throat politics, the diplomatic ties, and military exploits.

The plot is enthralling. There is an abundance of mystery involved in the true story of Francesco and Bianco. No one knows if they were murdered or died of natural death. The circumstances surrounding their deaths- just one day apart- were very suspicious. And there doesn’t seem to be clarification of their having children together. Some sources suggest one son, other sources say she may have “faked” a pregnancy to provide an heir for Francesco, and yet the family tree shows no children. Robert Elegant offers a compelling theory filled with suspense and intrigue. ( )

http://shelfandstuff.blogspot.com/2010/07/bianca-by-robert-elegant.html ( )

Written by a former American ambassador, Bianca is a retelling of the life of Bianca Cappello, a sixteenth-century Venetian noblewoman who went from being a fugitive and outcast from her society when she eloped with a penniless Florentine, to becoming a Venetian heroine and the mistress and, later, wife of Francesco de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The novel is definitely not a great piece of literature; with events sometimes clunkily shoehorned in to accomplish the plot points author Robert Elegant needs despite all dictates of logic or consistent characterisation. An example from very early on: the book's male protagonist, Bianca's (fictional) cousin Marco, begins the story as the youngest ship's captain in the Venetian navy, with a bright career ahead of him. But the book's plot demands that early on he be given significant responsibility, fail, and therefore spend the rest of the novel as an aging captain who never managed to achieve his potential. In order to give Marco his opportunity to fail, however, Elegant has to give him more responsibility than a simple ship's captain could have--he places him in command of a squadron of several ships. And an officer who commands both his own ship and the other ships of his squadron is, of course, no longer a captain--he has been promoted to commodore. But Elegant still needs Marco to spend the rest of the novel as a captain--so, for no particular reason, Marco isn't promoted to commodore, he's simply made "a captain in command of the other ships' captains".

But Elegant's obvious love of Venice is infectious, and he really captured my imagination with his description of the city and her Renaissance empire. An entertaining if sometimes flawed read. ( )