A story about power, connection, and what it means to truly see and be seen

Imminence: Florence, 1494 offers an account of the French entry into Florence and the collapse of the famous Medici regime in autumn 1494, a portrait of communities in the grips of perceived tyranny, and a meditation on the invisible forces, real and imagined, that act upon and within us in times of stress and great change. Combining fiction and fact, imagined stories and documented histories, Imminence explores political history, autocracy, sovereignty, and freedom as well as the experience of being a woman in Renaissance Italy.

Taking the dramatic events of the French descent into Italy in the fall of 1494 as its context, Imminence recounts the riveting and tumultuous history of a dangerously divided Florence through the eyes and experiences of an imagined lay visionary. From her precarious position as temporary resident in an elite nunnery tied to the highest echelons of political power, Dianora must act quickly to prevent the republic and those she loves from succumbing to three looming threats: civil war, tyranny, and invasion by King Charles VIII and his army of unprecedented size and destructive power.  

A vulnerable agent for political change, Dianora is caught in an alarming conflict between the increasingly autocratic de facto ruler of Florence, Piero de’ Medici, and his more popular, politically revolutionary cousin Giovanni, her former lover, now secretly aligned with the French king. Will Charles VIII arrive as friend or foe, and whom will he support as leader of Florence? Will Dianora’s inspired actions help her ex-lover and her beloved Florence, or will they condemn her and her family to exile or death?

For more on the historical context of the novel, see my scholarly article on the French descent into Italy in autumn 1494 here.