The kernel of the story of the Madonna of the Almonds came from enjoying a glass (or two) of Amaretto one Christmas with my husband. He was reading the back of the box that the bottle came in, which tells of the legend of Disaronno’s origins. He turned to me and said ‘that’s your next book’. So thank you, Sacha for the idea and for being there all the way through the ‘distillation’ process!
Thank you to my history teacher Jennifer Gill for first fostering my interest in the Italian Wars, and for her information on the Battle of Pavia. Thanks to my sister Veronica Fiorato and also Elizabeth Glover for their assistance on early ballistics, and to my father Adelin Fiorato who was invaluable on the work of Bernardino Luini.
Many thanks once again to my fantastic agent Teresa Chris and the wonderful team at Beautiful Books, especially Simon Petherick, Tamsin Griffiths and Katherine Josselyn.
This book deals partly with the Jewish experience in Renaissance Italy so I am particularly grateful to Linal Haft for reading the book from a Jewish perspective.
The portraits of the boys in this book were painted in the style of my own children, so thank you, Conrad and Ruby, for letting me borrow your characteristics.
Thanks to the makers of Disaronno both then and now, and to the long-dead Bernardino Luini - may you emerge, at last, from Leonardo’s shadow.