ANDREA DI ROBILANT

National Geographic Travellers the best books on European cities, 2019In the autumn of 1948 Hemingway was approaching fifty and hadnt published a novel in nearly a decade. He travelled for the first time to Venice and there, at a duck shoot in the lagoon he met and fell in love with Adriana Ivancich, a striking young Venetian woman just out of finishing school. What followed was a platonic love affair; he continued to visit her in Venice; she in turn came to Cuba while he wrote The Old Man and the Sea. This is the illuminating story of a writer and a muse that intimately examines both the cost to Adriana and the fractured heart and changing art of Hemingway in his fifties.Hemingway [is] an enduringly fascinating character, one whom di Robilant, with his easy-paced style, has sympathetically brought to life.Literary ReviewEffortlessly and expertly explores the secret desires, successes, and depressive obstacles that shrouded Ernest Hemingways final productive years.New York Journal of Books

In the 1380s and 90s, Nicolo and Antonio Zen journeyed from Venice up the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus. The story of their adventure travelled throughout Europe, from the workshop of the great cartographer Mercator to the court of Elizabeth I. For centuries, the brothers were international celebrities, until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a tissue of lies and the Zens faded into oblivion.But was it a hoax? What if these Venetian navigators really made their incredible journey? Intrigued by the myth, Andrea di Robilant sets out to discover the truth about the Zen voyages. Following in their footsteps, his quest to solve one of Venices most intriguing mysteries takes him on a fascinating journey of his own, from the crumbling Palazzo Zen in Venice to the Orkney Islands, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland and even as far as an isolated monastery in Greenland. Part history, part travelogue, Venetian Navigators is a charming tale of great journeys, fine detective work and faith, against the odds.

In 1797, Lucia, a beautiful statesmans daughter was married off to a powerful Venetian, only to be caught up in the turbulence of Napoleons march. This is her story, from dazzling young hostess in Habsburg Vienna, lady-in-waiting at the court of Prince Eugene de Beauharnais in Milan, single mother in Paris during the fall of Napoleons Empire to Byrons hard-fisted landlady during the poets stay in Venice.

A dazzling tale, brilliantly told' Peter Frankopan'A wonderful book' Sunday Telegraph, 5*'Triumphant' Literary ReviewDURING THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, in the autumn of 1550, an anonymously authored volume containing a wealth of geographical information new to Europeans was published in Venice under the title Navigationi et Viaggi (Journeys and Navigations). This was closely followed by two further volumes that, when taken together, constituted the largest release of geographical data in history, and could well be considered the birth of modern geography. The editor of these volumes was a little-known public servant in the Venetian government, Giovambattista Ramusio.He gathered a vast array of both popular and closely guarded narratives, from the journals of Marco Polo to detailed reports from the Muslim scholar and diplomat Leo Africanus. In an enthralling narrative, Andrea di Robilant brings to life the man who used all his political skill, along with the help of conniving diplomats and spies, to democratise knowledge and show how the world was much larger than anyone previously imagined.

A dazzling tale brilliantly told Peter Frankopan Marries the intrigue of Europe s most powerful royal courts with the globe trotting thrill of adventure and discovery Sunday Telegraph 5 review DURING THE AGE OF DISCOVERY in the autumn of 1550 a little known public servant in the Venetian government Giovambattista Ramusio anonymously published Navigationi et Viaggi Journeys and Navigations Containing a wealth of geographical information new to Europeans from the diaries of Marco Polo to detailed reports from the Muslim diplomat Leo Africanus it became the basis of the world map we still use today In an enthralling narrative This Earthly Globe brings to life the man who used all his political skill to democratize knowledge and show how the world was much larger than anyone previously imagined and in doing so chronicles the birth of modern geography

Andrea Memmo y Gustiniana Wynne se conocieron en un hermoso palacio veneciano una noche de 1754, y la pasión muy pronto los convirtió en amantes. Los dos eran jóvenes y hermosos, pero condenados a mantener su amor en secreto debido a los origenes oscuros de la dama y la nobleza del caballero. Asi llevaron su aventura de manera discreta, hasta que las habladurias obligaron a Gustiniana a dejar Venecia y recorrer Europa en compañia de su madre para cazar un marido que le permitiera obtener cierta estabilidad economica y continuar su relacion con el adorado Memmo. Las cartas de los amantes se intercambiaron a lo largo de seis años, han podido rescatarse, y con ellas Di Robilant ha reconstruido esta gran aventura amorosa.

A dazzling tale, brilliantly told Peter FrankopanA wonderful bookSunday Telegraph, 5*TriumphantLiterary ReviewDURING THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, in the autumn of 1550, an anonymously authored volume containing a wealth of geographical information new to Europeans was published in Venice under the title Navigationi et Viaggi (Journeys and Navigations). This was closely followed by two further volumes that, when taken together, constituted the largest release of geographical data in history, and could well be considered the birth of modern geography.The editor of these volumes was a little-known public servant in the Venetian government, Giovambattista Ramusio. He gathered a vast array of both popular and closely guarded narratives, from the journals of Marco Polo to detailed reports from the Muslim scholar and diplomat Leo Africanus.In an enthralling narrative, Andrea di Robilant brings to life the man who used all his political skill, along with the help of conniving diplomats and spies, to democratise knowledge and show how the world was much larger than anyone previously imagined.

À l’automne 1948, Ernest Hemingway et sa quatrième épouse, Mary, font une halte imprévue à Venise, que l’écrivain découvre, subjugué, pour la première fois. À la veille de son cinquantième anniversai

In 1787, the beautiful Lucia is married off to Alvise Mocenigo, scion of one of the most powerful Venetian families. But their life as a golden couple will be suddenly transformed when Venice falls to Bonaparte. We witness Lucias painful series of miscarriages and the pressure on her to produce an heir; her impassioned affair with an Austrian officer; the glamour and strain of her career as a hostess in Vienna; and her amazing firsthand account of the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. With his brave and articulate heroine, Andrea di Robilant has once again reached across the centuries, and deep into his own past, to bring history to rich and vivid life on the page.

From the author of the best-selling A Venetian Affair, here is the charming chronicle of his search for the identity of a mysterious old rose. Andrea di Robilants tale takes us back to the time of Josephine Bonaparte, as well as into some of the most delightful rose gardens in Italy today, brought to colorful life on the page in the watercolors of artist Nina Fuga. In his 2008 biography of the Venetian lady Lucia Mocenigo (his great-great-great-great- grandmother), di Robilant described a pink rose that grows wild on the familys former country estate, mentioning its light peach-and-raspberry scent. This passing detail led to an invitation for an audience with a local rose doyenne, Eleonora Garlant. She and other experts wondered if di Robilants unnamed rose could possibly be one of the long-lost China varieties that nineteenth-century European growers had cultivated but which have since disappeared. On the hunt for the identity of his anonymous yet quietly distinctive rose, Di Robilant finds himself captivated by roseophiles through timefrom Lucia and her friend Josephine Bonaparte to the gifted Eleonora, whose garden of nearly fifteen hundred varieties of old roses is one of the most significant in Europeand by the roses themselves, each of which has a tale to tell. What starts out as a lighthearted quest becomes a meaningful journey as di Robilant contemplates the enduring beauty of what is passed down to us in a rose, through both the generosity of nature and the cultivating hand of human beings, who for centuries have embraced and extended the life of this mysterious flower.

From the author of A Venetian Affair and Lucia comes a charming odyssey in the path of the mysterious Zen brothers, who explored parts of the New World a century before Columbus, and became both a source of scandal and a cause celebre among geographers in the following centuries. This delightful journey begins with Andrea di Robilants serendipitous discovery of a travel narrative published in Venice in 1558 by the Renaissance statesman Nicolo Zen: the text and its fascinating nautical map re-created the travels of two of the authors ancestors, brothers who explored the North Atlantic in the 1380s and 1390s. Di Robilant set out to discover why later, in the nineteenth century, the Zens account came under attack as one of the greatest frauds in geographical history. Was their mapand even their journeypartially or perhaps entirely faked? In Irresistible North the author follows the Zens route from the Faeroes to Shetland to Iceland and Greenland, greeted by characters who help unravel the enigmas in the Zens account. The medieval world comes to life as di Robilant guides us through a landscape enlivened by the ghosts of power-hungry earls and bishops of the old Norwegian realm and magical tales of hot springs and smoking mountains. In this rich tellingan original work of history and a travel book in onethe magnetism of the north draws us in as powerfully as it drew the Zen brothers more than six centuries ago.

The illuminating story of writer and musewhich also examines the cost to a young woman of her association with a larger-than-life literary celebrityAutumn in Venice is an intimate look at Hemingways final years.In the fall of 1948, Ernest Hemingway and his fourth wife traveled for the first time to Venice, which Hemingway called absolutely god-damned wonderful. A year shy of his fiftieth birthday, Hemingway hadnt published a novel in nearly a decade when he met and fell in love with Adriana Ivancich, a striking Venetian girl just out of finishing school. Here Andrea di Robilant re-creates with sparkling clarity this surprising, years-long relationship, during which Adriana inspired a man thirty years her senior to complete his great final work. Hemingway used Adriana as the model for Renata in Across the River and into the Trees, and continued to visit Venice to see her; when the Ivanciches traveled to Cuba, Adriana was there as he wrote The Old Man and the Sea.

From the author of the best-selling A Venetian Affair (A narrative of novelistic resonance . . . Astonishing The Washington Post), the story of an Italian Renaissance book editor who introduced European minds to the wider world through his passion for geographyIn the autumn of 1550, a thick volume containing a wealth of geographical information new to Europeans, with startling wood-cut maps of Africa, India and Indonesia, was published in Venice under the title Navigationi et Viaggi (Journeys and Navigations). The editor of this remarkable collection of travelogues, journals and classified government reports remained anonymous. Two additional volumes delivered the most accurate information on Asia and the New World available at the time. The three volumes together constituted an unparalleled release of geographical data into the public domain. It was, Andrea di Robilant writes, the biggest Wikileak of the Renaissance.In This Earthly Globe, di Robilant brings to life the palace intrigues, editorial wheedling, delicate alliances and vibrant curiosity that resulted in this coup by the editor Giovambattista Ramusio. Learned and self-effacing, he gathered a vast array of both popular and closely guarded narratives, from the journals of Marco Polo (he fact-checked them!) to detailed reports on Northern African cultures from the Muslim scholar and diplomat al-Hasan ibn Mohammad al-Wazzan (later known as Leo Africanus). Diverse voices spill out from these chapters as di Robilant recounts how Ramusio pursued the sources, and how he understood both the darker episodes of exploration involving colonial violence and the voyage stories which included accounts of people from African and Asian lands, who had a great deal to share about their cultures. The result is a far-flung and delightful homage to one of the founding fathers of modern geography.

The true story of forbidden love in eighteenth-century Venice between an Italian noble and the brilliant, illegitimate daughter of an English baronet. In 1754 Andrea Memmo, the dashing and gifted scion of a distinguished catholic family, fell in love with illegitimate English beauty, Giustiniana Wynne. This match went against every convention of their day; it was an impossible love. The lovers chased each other through peeling palazzos, ballrooms, salons, theatres and gambling dens, rubbing shoulders with legendary figures such as Canaletto and their friend, Casanova. Increasingly desperate, they decided Giustiniana should marry to conceal their relationship. A summer passed in flirting with the English Consul, Joseph Smith, but he soon saw through the deception and the affair became public. The consequences were disastrous. Casanova was imprisoned for his pernicious influence. Disgraced, Giustiniana left for Paris, where she launched herself into society in the hunt for a new husband. Her love for Memmo had lingering consequences that were to break this match, and she left again for London, hoping to build a new life, but a different fate lay in store Andrea di Robilant is Andrea Memmos great great great grandson. The idea to write A Venetian Affair was planted when his father discovered Andreas letters to Giustiniana mouldering in the attic of the familys crumbling Venetian palazzo. His fathers violent murder inspired di Robilant to fulfil his fathers dream to write about the lovers, and this fascinating, romantic tale is the result of di Robilants dedication and passion. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Hemingway en otoño captura, de manera íntima, los fructíferos años finales de la vida del escritor Ernest Hemingway. Di Robilant relata como en el otoño de 1948, Hemingway y su cuarta esposa, Mary Welsh, emprenden un viaje a Venecia, una de las ciudades f

In the waning days of Venices glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the citys oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustinianas mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughters chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a few intimates and servants (willing to risk their own positions) to shuttle love letters back and forth and to help facilitate their clandestine meetings. Eventually, Giustiniana found herself pregnant and she turned for help to the infamous Casanovahimself infatuated with her. Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.