Valeria Montaldi

Valeria Montaldi is an Italian journalist and writer.

She was born in Milan, where she earned a degree in History of Art Criticism. After about twenty years of journalism dedicated to the art, cultural places and people in Milan, in 2001 she published her first novel, The Wool Merchant (Piemme), immediately acclaimed by both public and critics, and which received three prizes: the Premio Ostia Mare in Roma, the Premio Città di Cuneo and the Premio Frignano. The Wool Merchant was followed in 2003 by The Lord of the Hawk (Piemme),and in 2006 by The English Monk (Rizzoli): both were selected for the Premio Bancarella. The Emperor’s Manuscript is her last novel and is to be released in September 2008.

Valeria Montaldi’s stories take place in the mid 1200’s and move from the castles in Val D’Aosta to the streets of Milan, from the woods of Lombard county to the Mark of Treviso. The adventures of aristocrats, commoners, monks, heretics, merchants, soldiers, witches and inquisitors are woven together in the narrative. The thread connecting it all is the Benedictine friar Matthew, who, even in the latest novel, finds himself involved in dramatic events set about by a mysterious illuminated manuscript. Many seem to desperately cover the codex, and this creates a series of intrigues that ends up involving the highest dignitaries of the civil and religious powers of the time. Valeria Montaldi’s novels are sold and published in many countries, even outside of Europe. The author lives and works in Milan.

Bibliography

*"The Wool Merchant", Edizioni Piemme (2001)
*"The Lord of the Hawk", Edizioni Piemme (2003)
*"The English Monk", Rizzoli (2006)
*"The Emperor's Manuscript", Rizzoli (2008)

The Wool Merchant

“… I have returned, Father Matthew, to tell you not to torment your soul with faults you don’t have… You will go in search of a town where rich merchants live, among mountains so steep you have never seen anything like them: it’s called Felik…” And Father Matthew sets out, leaving his convent in far away England, guilty of having offered protection to a young woman accused of witch craft. A long journey attends him, through XIII century Europe. He carries with him an unsettling prophecy, so unsettling it makes his faith tremble. He will meet brigands and prostitutes, thieves and merchants: he will be offered hospitality by rich castle owners and by poor peasants, till he reaches the valley we now call Gressoney. There, at the feet of the icy mountains, lives the small walzer community of Felik. A strange atmosphere envelops that small village, were everyone’s heart seems to have dried up. Until the day in which a thick snow tainted red starts to fall…”

The Lord of the Hawk

“Milan 1226. The body of a young woman surfaces in the Vettabbia canal: she has evidently just given birth, but there is no trace of the child she has delivered. Seventeen years elapse before someone starts wondering about its fate. Only then Arnolfo da Sala, abbot of San Simpliciano, alerted by a recurring dream and by old suspicions known only to himself, will give friar Matthew the order to investigate. In the streets of a Milan distressed by the hunt for heretics and exhausted by the fight against Frederich II, Matthew will begin his search for truth. Through places that are still recognizable today, such as the Broletto, political and social centre of the town, the Quadronno woods and the Brolo Hospital, Matthew’s path is crossed by Isaac, a Jewish doctor, and his daughter Rachele, and he gets very close to meeting with the Emperor Fredrich himself, who has entered the town in disguise. But only the encounter with the Bohemian Guglielma, fortune teller and mystic around whom the thick fog of the Inquisition is collecting, will leave an enduring mark in the friar’s conscience, showing him the way to fulfill his mission.”

The English Monk

“Milan, 1246. In the dark of night the walls of the city are lit by a sinister light: Guglielmo’s house is on fire. The man, a respectable master builder, dies amid the flames together with his wife. From the outskirts of the woods, Juditha, the witch of Quadronno, silently watches as the man who started the fire escapes. In the meantime, Arnolfo, the Abbot of San Simpliciano, has to face the hardest test of his life: defending the honor of the monastery from the plots of Birago, a scheming merchant. The recent prestigious wedding of his daughter Anselma with an heir of the powerful Della Torre family isn’t enough to hide the merchant’s shady schemes: soon the suspicions about his wicked behavior become certain. Friar Matthew, who has returned to Milan to meet his friend Arnolfo, will have to help him once again, sharing with him the weight of a secret sin. While in town the rumors accusing Birago become ever more frequent, Matthew tries to find the evidence to prove Arnolfo’s innocence. Along the difficult path that has been imposed on him, his life will often be in peril, but he will also meet a woman capable of awakening in him an emotion he didn’t think he could feel. Meanwhile, in the dusty alleys of Milan the fury of the people against the arrogant power of the merchant class and against the mayor is growing: unaware of the tragedy that is about to overcome her, young Anselma follows the thin thread of an unexpected revelation that will lead her to discover an unsettling secret…”

The Emperor's Manuscript

Parma, February 1248. Thick columns of smoke blacken the sky of the city under siege. Fire roars in the royal camp: the Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II’s soldiers lie on the ground, massacred without pity by the town’s people in revolt. While the fire destroys everything and the tents are ransacked, a manuscript on the art of falconry, written by Frederick II himself, disappears. Nine months later, Frederick entrusts his vicar, Ezzelino da Romano, with the task of finding it. He cannot allow it to be lost forever. Not only because it is a work of incalculable value, enriched with precious illuminations, but even more because on those pages are written things that, if made public at the wrong moment, could provoke a charge of heresy and break the already unstable equilibrium with the Church. This mission is assigned to Gualdo da Margnano, Ezzelino’s trustworthy lieutenant. Together with the young French illuminator Simone from Aix, he reaches the castle of San Martino where the manuscript could be hidden. None of those who live there seem to know of the existence of this mysterious document: neither the lord of the castle, nor the young niece, nor her tutor, Matthew from Willingtham. But they must be quick and explore every room, every crack and cranny. Because a new war has begun. News of the manuscript has reached the Pope’s ears. Innocenzo IV decides to entrust the investigation to an inquisitor with no scruples. And as an old mad woman wanders about on the castle walls, and a witch explores secret passages, Matthew finds himself involved in cruel power games, played out with ever more insoluble enigmas. Until fate decides the destiny of the manuscript…Valeria Montaldi’s latest novel, mixing a deep historical knowledge and a flawless narrative style, is not only a catching medieval adventure, but also a brilliant representation of the relationship between State and Church, between religious ethics and lay thought that, read beyond the lines, lends itself to inevitable discussions and comparisons with our days.

External links

* [http://valeriamontaldi.it/ Official site]