In questa seconda serie del serial televisivo I Medici. Masters of Florence, Raoul Bova interpreta infatti Francesco Della Rovere, a cui è intitolata la Cappella Sistina affrescata da Michelangelo per il nipote papa Giulio II.

Nella grande Sala di Manto è stato allestito il trono pontificio e avverrà la scena dell’incoronazione del frate minore conventuale, laureato in filosofia e teologia a Pavia, docente nelle università di Venezia e di Padova, abate, raffinato scrittore e fine teologo. La sua elezione passò alla storia per il mercanteggiamento dei voti, con tre cardinali in primo piano, tra cui Francesco Gonzaga (quello raffigurato nella Camera degli Sposi) e Riario Borgia. Fu questi, cardinale protonotario a incoronare il 25 agosto 1471 Francesco della Rovere che prese il nome di Sisto, il santo del giorno.

Come papa è ricordato per aver istituito la festa dell’Immacolata Concezione l’8 dicembre e aver promosso la recita del Rosario, per due Crociate e per l’ostilità ai Medici, sfociata nell’istigare i Pazzi contro i rivali.

Nell’attigua sala dei Marchesi si è girato ieri: qui Papa Sisto IV ha la sua camera da letto con l’angolo dello studio, mentre nella Sala dei Capitani è allestita la biblioteca. Insomma il Vaticano nella location di Palazzo Ducale. Nella Reggia Gonzaghesca verranno girate altre scene importanti nel cortile d’onore, nell’appartamento dei nani e nel cortile della Cavallerizza.

Con questo libro dedicato a Leonardo, Isaacson indaga il campo della genialità, raccontando la vita e le opere del genio per eccellenza e simbolo stesso del Rinascimento. Scavando tra i codici e interrogando la splendida produzione artistica, l'autore cala il lettore nell'Italia quattrocentesca dei sanguinosi scontri di potere (per cui Leonardo progettava modernissime macchine da guerra) e del fervore creativo. Leonardo fu un genio in molteplici discipline, dall'architettura all'arte, passando per la meccanica e gli studi anatomici; realizzò i due dipinti più famosi della storia, «L'Ultima cena» e la «Gioconda», e s'interessò di scienza e di tecnologia. La biografia scritta da Isaacson ci ricorda l'importanza non solo di apprendere, ma anche di non smettere di interrogarci e di far sempre ricorso al «think different» che ha caratterizzato il genio di ogni epoca.

ON SALE NOW - "Venus in Fur" at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from the 6th Oct - 9th Dec starring #NatalieDormer & #DavidOakes and directed by #PatrickMarber.

I've been very lucky in the attention that's been paid to my novels.

"Each adaptation is different and brings a different writer and a different aesthetic.

"I much prefer it if they stay close to the history, which is truly what happened."

Usually, she sells the rights and then acts as consultant, although she has been executive producer on occasions.

She had no involvement in the making of The White Princess - the story of Elizabeth of York and her marriage to Henry VII - which was shown in the US and clearly wasn't too impressed with the final outcome.

"The scriptwriter says she wanted to make Game of Thrones with women. I didn't and I don't. And I didn't know that at the beginning.

"I always wanted something realistic and plausible about the past in my novels and some of them are literally biographies, especially of unknown people. I stay very close to the reality."

Now, she has a new contract with TV production companies specifying that they may not alter the history.

"To produce a historical drama which is unhistorical is not what it says on the tin. To me, it's a bit of a waste of time."

In a bizarre miscalculation, the historical novelist Philippa Gregory took a sideswipe at the authors of genre novels in an interview with the New York Times yesterday. “Choosing to write a genre novel is like fencing the universe because you are afraid of space,” said Gregory, loftily. “Why does anyone write lazy, sloppy genre novels? The typing alone is so exhausting — surely if you’re going to undertake 150,000 words, you might as well have something interesting to say?”

Quite apart from the fact that every piece of writing falls into one genre or another, the comment is bizarre first because of who Gregory is. The author of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Taming of the Queen, and most recently The Last Tudor, Gregory writes historical fiction – and is indisputably a genre novelist herself. You know what you’re going to get when you pick up a Philippa Gregory novel – and I write that as someone who has read a fair few of them.


It becomes even more bizarre when, in the same interview, Gregory goes on to name her favourite fictional hero as a Georgette Heyer gent: Vidal, in Devil’s Cub. Not that he isn’t a great choice – I cannot think of many more enduring pleasures than curling up with a Heyer novel – but Heyer is the undisputed queen of the Regency romance, and even said herself: “I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense, but it’s unquestionably good escapist literature.” So Gregory clearly enjoys reading “lazy, sloppy” genre writing herself.

It’s also a miscalculation because I’d say the readers of her books include a vast swath of romance readers. Romantic relationships between the kings and queens of yore are generally at the heart of Gregory’s novels.

Many of these readers aren’t delighted at being written off by her. “This casual dismissal hurts. How do you think your romance reading fans would feel about this?” tweeted California romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice (a place I long to visit). Author Kristan Higgins also went on the attack: “I’ve kind of had it with tawdry, inaccurate historical retellings about Tudors myself”; while Joanne Harris tweeted that “choosing to write a genre novel is like cooking a regional dish. It doesn’t mean you hate the rest of the world... Nor are the basic ingredients limited to one style of cooking.”

Philippa's latest novel, The Last Tudor, centres on the Grey Sisters - Lady Jane Grey, who reigned for just nine days, her sisters Katherine and Mary and their cousin Queen Elizabeth's brutal treatment of them, to ensure they would not produce any potential royal heirs.

"I give a very critical description of Elizabeth as a monster. It's written in the voices of the three Grey girls and it's very important to me that we see it from their point of view.

"Elizabeth is completely paranoid about her heirs, who are younger and prettier than her, and who are able to marry for love in a way that she never allowed herself.

"It's a negative, nightmarish picture of Elizabeth."