A juicy read: The Falconer's Knot

The Falconer's Knot By: Mary Hoffman Review

By: Presice Lee

Main Characters:

Silvano da Montacuto (The only son of a noble family)

Barone Bartolomeo da Montacuto (His father)

Charia (Daughter of a once wealthy family)

Gervasio de’ Oddini (Silvanos best friend)

Angelica (The object of Silvanos affection)

Tommaso (Angelica's sheep farmer husband)

Simone Martini

Pietro Lorenzetti

Main conflict

The Falconer's Knot is a story of mystery, murder, and romance set in medieval/middle ages italy. Its takes place in the summer and early autumn months of the 14th century or Trecento. It starts when Silvanos knife is found in the chest sheep farmers chest. The husband of the woman he admires. It does not help that he was the first at the scene of the crime and he has written a love letter for the farmers wife.  People begin to accuse Silvano and he is shipped off to a sanctuary in Franciscan friary disguised as a monk while his father searches for the killer. There he meets a girl whose father died and did not leave enough money for her. So her brother ships her off to the sanctuary. They become friends but the murders continue. A visiting merchant is stabbed again a dagger used. People began to point fingers at Silvano. Charia and Silvano began to try and solve the string of murders happening all around them.  

Quotes

“Tommaso wanted an heir; his first wife had been barren and he waited patiently till she died”

Both these quotes relate to women and society in the middle ages, “Throughout the Middle Ages women were the pawns of men. Depending on their class, they lived in varying degrees of comfort or misery”-Meg Bogin. And she goes to say, “Women of all ranks, even those who held property, were wards throughout the Middle Ages, always under the guardianship of man. Even Silvano only wanted Angelica for her family and even her family said “They were aware that she had no name or breeding” just a pretty face. They were like objects by men and their families  during this time.

“And she was beginning to wonder if all the pretty clothes in the world could make up for having a short middle aged man for a husband” Not to say men had it easy. Even if you loved the women there is no guaranteed love. She was “sold” to you, what can you really expect.

Historical Perspective/ Facts and Statistics

All the characters in this novel are fictional except for the painters Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti, and their assistants and the Minister General of the Franciscans, Michele da Cesena. There is no historical evidence that Mary Hoffman could find for the artists working on the Basilica in Assisi. But such was sometimes undertaken by friars and it suited her  narrative purposes to build a whole edifice on some very light references in the literature, especially from Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell’ Arte. The Falconer’s Knot took place in the summer months of 1316. Mary took the consensus views of the art historians that Simone Martini had finished his frescoes in the chapel of Saint Martin in Assisi by 1317(Which is a place in the book). Some months after the action in the book, and that Pietro Lorenzetti’s work was started after Simone's, and was influenced by him.

Overall

Overall the book was good , the murders were a bit dull, but it was a nice read.