The Mosaic Crimes - Giulio Leoni

I admit that I know virtually nothing about the Renaissance, even less about the people who became famous because of their talents, skills, philosophies or discoveries. I do know it was a period of where the 'known' was being questioned even in, possibly because of, strong establishments governing with iron fists, such as the Catholic Church and the Inquisition. Dante Alighieri emerged from Florence, the hub of enlightenment, apparently for various reasons, but I only knew of him because of The (Divine) Comedy. Not because I had the wisdom to read such an illustrious text, but because my youngest brother gave me his copy of Inferno, along with whatever books he had left when he decided to clear across the country. Still after ten years of ownership, I have yet to crack it open.



I've owned this book almost as long as Inferno but was unable to fit it in until recently. I had heard wonderful things about this series from my Italian friends. Two important things to be clear about this book: it is a translation from Italian, and it is actually the second book in the series. The first was, to my knowledge, never translated into English. The translation felt very stilted to me. There were terms used which are accurate direct translations but did not work as well as another word might have. They were not necessarily archaic words, rather passé expressions. As a result I felt I had to work a bit to get at what was really being said. The other problem with the translation is that it assumes that even though the text is in English, the reader should have some knowledge of Italian expressions or turns of phrase. The reader becomes lost in trying to work out what is being said. At least I was.

As the second book in the series other features are missing, such as the protagonist's growth. Dante is already an established personage, but seeing him for the first time in this book is jarring. I did not expect him to be an angry, slightly vile, egotistical and violent man. His sense of superiority and aggression are not what I expected of the little that I know of the man. Which made me wonder if one must be familiar with his work to truly understand the characterisation. Only someone who is familiar with his works and this book would be able to answer that.

The mystery itself has a lot to offer, but it gets mired in Dante's character, his ego, and the conflict between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. Yeah, I had to research this too. Probably, a great deal of knowledge about 14th century Italy, especially Florence wouldn't come amiss for any future readers. I've never thought this about a translation before, but I expect that if you can read Italian, you would be better off getting this novel in its original language for the best effect. Which is a real shame because I do think this should be a cracking story in any language.

Review originally appeared on the now defunct Paternoster Row Legacy blog.