The assassination of the young husband of Lucrezia Borgia in Rome and the vandalism of the best of Forentine art trigger the action in George Herman’s latest historical novel, “The Florentine Mourners.”

This novel, brings together the Borgias in conflict with the exiled Medici family in Rome while a group of mysterious “mourners” in Florence supposedly follow the dictates of their late leader, Savonarola, and mutilate works by Donatello, Uccello and Botticelli.

Leonardo da Vinci and the dwarf, Niccolo da Pavia exploring what madness drives vandals to desecrate artifacts, and also examines what could bring Leonardo, an artist who called war a “Bestial madness,” into the service of the warlord, Cesare Borgia.

“The Florentine Mourners” is available through iUniverse.com and Amazon.com and will soon be published on Kindle.

A Renaissance Mystery by

George Herman