House of Niccolo series
by Dunnet, Dorothy
    1. Niccolo Rising (1986)
pub by Knopf, NY 1986     ISBN-10: 0394531078
470 p. - maps - Fiction

    2. Spring of the Ram (1987)
    3. Race of Scorpions (1989)
    4. Scales of Gold (1991)

Well researched historical fiction covering the period 1460-1480, and spanning area from Bruges in the Netherlands to Venice to the eastern edges of the Byzantine empire on the Black Sea and on to Timbuktu in the Sahara. The books protagonist is a Flemish textile merchant who does well and parlays a modest organization to being a participant among the great mercantile empires of the late medieval and early renaissance.
These are difficult reads, very dense, but rewarding. Not all parts of the stories end happily.
~ most of these read in 1992 ~




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