Divine Mistress Author:Frank G. Slaughter A 1951 Permabooks Paperback edition, with a 35 cent cover price. — ?Bring the woman here?? Shackled and helpless, Antonio watched ? horrified. They were dragging a new victim into the dreaded torture chamber. A cry of anguish escaped from Antonio?s lips - the woman was Lucia! — Antonio knew that they could not execute him without a confession-and ... more »he knew, no matter what the torture, that he would never confess. But he had underestimated their cunning-they were going to break him by making him watch while they tortured Lucia?
A shy, ascetic young scholar, a beautiful high-spirited girl, and a magnificent picture--the glorious naked form of the Botticelli Birth of Venus--these are the fascinating figures in Frank Slaughter?s exciting, fast-moving story of intrigue, adventure, and love in the rich, baroque world of the Renaissance in Italy and Spain.
In 1562 there lived in the city of Padua a young teacher of anatomy, Antonio Servetus. His somewhat lonely days were occupied in teaching and his thoughts were directed toward the possible taking of Holy Orders. Then two things happened which changed his life irrevocably and brought him both love and danger. He discovered the Botticelli Venus in a cubby hole in the Priory, and he met Lucia Bellarmi, whose beauty he found disturbing and strangely familiar.
In Venice, where Antonio went to have a monograph on anatomy printed, he was introduced to the gay and wicked life of the city. There he met Clarice Strozzi, beautiful and seductive artist's model; he witnessed a truly terrifying celebration of the Black Mass; and his path again crossed that of Lucia's.....
Then the long arm of the Inquisition reached out for Antonio because of the theories in his monograph......
As in all of in Frank Slaughter?s novels, there are tense and dramatic scenes in the operating room, where a man's life hangs in the balance, skillfully counter pointed against moments of tender love and yearning passion.« less