Pulp fiction
Sep. 8th, 2019 09:09 pmI need you to read this to get some history before you click on the cut and view the INCREDIBLY HISTORICALLY ACCURATE image that lurks below.
So today, for Reasons, I was reading about 14th century Italian condottieri (mercenaries, more specifically, well-known mercenary captains). Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman who captained the White Company*, was one of the most well-known 14th century condottieri. IIRC, he originally was a veteran of the Hundred Years' War, and he and a bunch of English veterans ended up mercenarying their way across Europe after that ended.
*If you've read Glen Cook's Black Company series, yes.
So anyway, Hawkwood fought for a number of different city-states and families, and ended up well-known and high-ranked enough that Bernabó Visconti, the ruler of Milan, married one of his illegitimate daughters, Donnina Visconti, off to him. (Note: Hawkwood and B. Visconti were born the same year, and if my math is correct, Hawkwood was in his 50s and D. Visconti was 17.)
I was, naturally, seized with the desire to know more about Donnina, and commenced Googling. Not much is out there, probably because as a reasonably proper 14th century Italian upperclass woman, she was most likely sequestered within the household until needed as a political bargaining chip. Although one source mentioned that, like most Visconti women, she was hardheaded. The library where I work has a biography of Hawkwood in its stacks, and I intend to check it out to see if any more is known about her.
ANYWAY. As a result of this Googling, I came upon THIS, the cover to the THRILLING AND EXCITING pulp novel devoted to the PURE TRUE LOVE of Hawkwood and Donnina Visconti, Iron Lover.
Naturally, I immediately went to Amazon and LO AND BEHOLD it turns out that the author's estate is digitizing and uploading his catalog of works, and selling the ebooks for reasonable prices, so OF COURSE I immediately purchased a copy...
...as a gift for![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija, who loves to read terrible books, and who is under instructions to read it and report back.
The Amazon cover is terrible, and not even in a good way, as it comes from the school of "Put a word into Shutterstock and grab the first picture that comes up" instead of trying to find something even remotely plausible. And in NO WAY does it match the UTTER GLORY that is the original cover of this NO DOUBT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE novel of the love between a middle-aged 14th century English mercenary captain and his teenage 14th century Milanese bride.
( CUT because the ORIGINAL is FAR TOO GLORIOUS for YOU to HANDLE )
So today, for Reasons, I was reading about 14th century Italian condottieri (mercenaries, more specifically, well-known mercenary captains). Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman who captained the White Company*, was one of the most well-known 14th century condottieri. IIRC, he originally was a veteran of the Hundred Years' War, and he and a bunch of English veterans ended up mercenarying their way across Europe after that ended.
*If you've read Glen Cook's Black Company series, yes.
So anyway, Hawkwood fought for a number of different city-states and families, and ended up well-known and high-ranked enough that Bernabó Visconti, the ruler of Milan, married one of his illegitimate daughters, Donnina Visconti, off to him. (Note: Hawkwood and B. Visconti were born the same year, and if my math is correct, Hawkwood was in his 50s and D. Visconti was 17.)
I was, naturally, seized with the desire to know more about Donnina, and commenced Googling. Not much is out there, probably because as a reasonably proper 14th century Italian upperclass woman, she was most likely sequestered within the household until needed as a political bargaining chip. Although one source mentioned that, like most Visconti women, she was hardheaded. The library where I work has a biography of Hawkwood in its stacks, and I intend to check it out to see if any more is known about her.
ANYWAY. As a result of this Googling, I came upon THIS, the cover to the THRILLING AND EXCITING pulp novel devoted to the PURE TRUE LOVE of Hawkwood and Donnina Visconti, Iron Lover.
Naturally, I immediately went to Amazon and LO AND BEHOLD it turns out that the author's estate is digitizing and uploading his catalog of works, and selling the ebooks for reasonable prices, so OF COURSE I immediately purchased a copy...
...as a gift for
rachelmanija, who loves to read terrible books, and who is under instructions to read it and report back.The Amazon cover is terrible, and not even in a good way, as it comes from the school of "Put a word into Shutterstock and grab the first picture that comes up" instead of trying to find something even remotely plausible. And in NO WAY does it match the UTTER GLORY that is the original cover of this NO DOUBT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE novel of the love between a middle-aged 14th century English mercenary captain and his teenage 14th century Milanese bride.
( CUT because the ORIGINAL is FAR TOO GLORIOUS for YOU to HANDLE )
