Page 49 of The Stone Witch of Florence

EPILOGUE

1925, New York City

B elle da Costa Greene looked at the stack of correspondence on her desk and sighed. She counted at least two dozen letters, all from eager dealers of books and antiquities, hoping to entice her employers into a purchase. Responding to these tedious inquiries was her least favorite responsibility as head librarian for one of the most important public collections in the world.

She picked up her silver letter opener, admiring for the thousandth time its handle: a branch of Mediterranean coral, red as oxblood.

Slice. The envelope offered a first edition of The Lamplighter by Charles Dickens.

We already have at least two of those . No, thank you.

Slice. A terra-cotta idol, from Cyprus, or maybe Tunisia. Perhaps sixth century BC, or maybe seventh? The dealer couldn’t say.

Sounds suspect. Next.

Slice. This letter was addressed to a Mr. B. Greene. Belle threw it in the wastebasket without reading further.

Slice. As Belle’s eyes scanned the next letter, a welcome and familiar feeling overtook her. It felt as though the air hummed with faint vibrations, as though the coral letter opener grew warm in her hand. It was the feeling she got whenever she came across something extraordinary. She read the letter again, slowly.

JACQUES SELIGMANN & FILS

GERMAIN SELIGMANN & CIE SUCCRS

57 RUE SAINT DOMINIQUE

(ANCIEN HOTEL SAGAN)

Miss Belle Greene, July 12, 1925

Morgan Library,

33 East 36th Street,

New York City

My Dear Miss Greene:-

I have just arrived in New York and my first thought was of you. How wonderful to hear that Mr. Morgan’s library will now be open to researchers!

I have brought back with me a rare trecento manuscript of Florentine provenance that I hope you will find a worthwhile addition to the library’s collection.

The volume is a lapidary text containing verse on the magical properties of gemstones, and is unique in that the author is a lady called Ginevra di Gasparo. Her name appears as one of the rare female members in the registrars of the Florentine Guild of Doctors, Apothecaries, and Grocers.

Would you allow me a moment of your time, so I may show you the work in person?

Yours very sincerely,

Germain Seligmann

Belle folded up the letter and closed her eyes. There were hardly any medieval manuscripts attributed to women, and even fewer references to female physicians. But she’d always felt that this couldn’t possibly represent the truth. She picked up the telephone, and asked the operator to connect her to the offices of Seligmann & Co., art dealers. As she waited, she looked at the letter again and smiled.

“Well, Ginevra di Gasparo,” said the librarian, “let’s show the world what you knew.”