Florenzer

Set in Renaissance-era Florence, this ravishing debut reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men―a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors―and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets.

Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici’s bank exacerbates the city’s staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe’s preeminent destination for gay men―or “florenzers,” as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter’s apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation―but risk lingers around every corner.

Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama unfolds the machinations of a city on the brink of a new age as it contends with the tensions between public and private lives, the entanglement of erotic and creative impulse, the sacrifices of the determinedly pious, and the risks of fantastic power. With his “unforgettable characters and an ever-twisting plot, all told with style, skill, and wry black humor” (Tim Leach), Phil Melanson emerges as an enthralling new voice in contemporary fiction.

Author: Phil Melanson 

Hardback  Published 18 August 2025  368 pages

"Phil Melanson’s entertaining historical fiction debut,Florenzer, imagines the early life and same-sex longings of Leonardo da Vinci against the backdrop of a conflict between the Medici family and the Vatican. The novel, which owes a debt to Hilary Mantel’sWolf Halltrilogy in the detail and immediacy of its telling, feels freshly contemporary in its papal intrigue and plutocratic power battles."―Charles Arrowsmith,Washington Post

"History buffs will relish inFlorenzer, which is set in Renaissance-era Florence and reimagines the life of Leonardo da Vinci. Tapping into the historical speculation that da Vinci was gay,Florenzerfollows the young painter as he intersects with two men – one being the powerful patriarch of the world’s wealthiest bank – amid an era of cultural and technological innovation."―Clare Mulroy,USA TODAY