The year is 1527, and Rome is being attacked by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his army of Germans, Lutherans, and Spanish soldiers. The night the city was sacked, many fled or died at the hands of the soldiers, but there was a house who welcomes the incoming attackers, the house of the courtesan Fiammetta Bianchini and her dwarf companion Bucino. They decide to flee with their jewelry to Venice, but they soon learn that Venice is even more treacherous. Can Fiammetta and Bucino survive their new city, or will this new town destroy everything that they worked so hard to create? Sarah Dunant explores the world of a courtesan in her novel, “In the Company of the Courtesan.”

 

This is one of those books that I found at a used bookstore. I saw that it took place during the Sack of Rome, which was intriguing to me because I have not read many novels set during this time in Italian history. I also have never read any books by Sarah Dunant, but I have heard good things about her novels, so I wanted to give them a try.

 

We begin with the night that Rome was attacked. While Rome was burning and people were dying, Fiammetta Bianchini, one of the most prized courtesans in all of Rome, and her “pimp” Bucino, decided that to survive the night, they would open their home to the invading soldiers. In the aftermath, they decide to swallow their remaining jewels and leave Rome for somewhere safer, Venice. It was Fiammetta’s home before she moved away to Rome, but she soon realizes that beauty is fleeting as an illness wrecks her body. It is then that the duo meets a blind, elderly healer named La Draga. 

 

Fiammetta and Bucino must rebuild their lives in a new city, but they soon discover that a new city means new dangers. There’s a theft of a great jewel that could end their enterprise before it even begins, and a poet from the past who could spell disaster to Fiametta’s reputation. There is a book with scandalous drawings that is dangerous to own, a young lad whose puppy love could lead the Lady astray, and a Turk who has an interest in human novelties for his sultan’s court. And then, there is the case of La Draga and her true identity.

 

Dunant created a seedy underworld of Renaissance Venice that feels so believable, it is almost as if you can step into the pages. I enjoyed the characters of Bucino and Fiammetta, but towards the middle of the book, I was wondering how she was going to finish this novel. To me, the ending felt a bit rushed. Overall, I think this was a decent novel about Renaissance Italy. If you want a novel set in 16th-century Italy that has a darker tone, I would suggest you read  “In the Company of the Courtesan” by Sarah Dunant.