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Historical person
1568–1644
Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623 and ruled the Catholic Church and Papal States until his death in 1644. His pontificate coincided with the Thirty Years’ War and was marked by ambitious diplomacy, military expenditure and extensive advancement of members of the Barberini family.
Urban was also an important patron of the arts. Gian Lorenzo Bernini flourished under his support, and the physical transformation of Rome became part of papal display and authority. The pontificate is also remembered for the 1633 trial of Galileo, an episode that has made Urban a central figure in later debates about church authority and new science.
In Deborah Swift’s The Cameo Keeper, As the conclave elects a successor to Urban VIII, astrologer Mia Caiozzi and her physician fiancé Jacopo expect to begin their married life. In Deborah Swift’s The Silkworm Keeper, When a plot threatens Pope Urban VIII, Giulia’s reputation as a poisoner makes neutrality impossible.
Series
The Giulia Tofana series reimagines the legendary poisoner against the courts, convents, workshops and political intrigues of seventeenth-century Italy. Beginning with Giulia’s flight to Naples, the sequence follows her attempts to survive a reputation built around Aqua Tofana while protecting those closest to her. Later volumes carry the…
All books in this series
