Florence, 1563. Forbidden from practicing her herbal cures in Venice, Bianca Capello flees to Florence, where the ruling Medici family practices alchemy. There, she wins herself an invitation to their palace, and, as it turns out, a path to the duke regent Francesco’s bed. The impassioned bond between Francesco de Medici and Bianca is at the core of this fact-driven dive into medicine, politics, love, and ultimately death in Renaissance Florence. Malaria killed many of the Medicis, but traces of the poison arsenic were recently found in Francesco’s remains. Even more sinister: Bianca’s remains have never been found.
Narrator Megan Carol Haas brings Gigi Berardi’s title character to life as she wields the herb artemisia into a medicine, still used today.
