I am not saying I am a great painter. I am not such a fool. But I say that out of my 
pain, out of my folly, out of my passion there comes a vision - a vision which I carry 
with me eternally and which I offer to you.
  It is a vision of every human being, bursting with fire and with mystery, a vision I 
cannot deny, nor blot out, nor ever turn away from, nor ever belittle nor ever escape. 
Others write of doubt and darkness. Others write of meaninglessness and quiet.
  I write of indefinable and celestial gold that will forever burn bright.
  I write of blood thirst that is never satisfied. I write of knowledge and its price.
  Behold, I tell you, the light is there in you. I see it. I see it in each and every one 
of us, and will always. I see it when I hunger, when I struggle, when I slaughter. I see 
it sputter and die in my arms when I drink.
  Can you imagine what it would be like for me to kill you?
  Pray it never takes a slaughter or a rape for you to see this light in those around 
you. God forbid it that it should demand such a price. Let me pay the price for you 
instead.
  
  THE END
  
  
  SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  I went to Florence to receive this manuscript directly from Vittorio di Raniari. It was 
my fourth visit to the city, and it was with Vittorio that I decided to list here a few 
books for those of you who might want to know more about the Age of Gold in Florence and 
about Florence itself.
  Let me recommend first and foremost, and above all others, the brilliant Public Life in 
Renaissance Florence by Richard C. Trexler, published today by Cornell University Press.
  Professor Trexler has also written other wonderful books on Italy, but this book is a 
particularly rich and inspiring one, especially for me, because Professor Trexler's 
analyses and insights regarding Florence have helped me to understand my own city of New 
Orleans, Louisiana, better than anything directly written by anyone about New Orleans 
itself.
  New Orleans, like Florence, is a city of public spectacles, rituals and feast days, of 
demonstrations of communal celebration and belief. It is almost impossible to 
realistically explain New Orleans, and its Mardi Gras, its St. Patrick's Day and its 
annual Jazz Fest, to those who have not been here. Professor Trexler's brilliant 
scholarship gave me tools to gather thoughts about and observations pertaining to those 
things I most love. Other works by Professor Trexler include his Journey of the Magi: 
Meanings in History of a Christian Story, a work only recently discovered by me. Readers 
familiar with my previous novels might remember the intense and blasphemously fervent 
relationship between my character the vampire Armand and the Florentine painting The 
Procession of the Magi, created for Piero de' Medici by Benozzo Gozzoli, which can be 
seen in all its glory in Florence today.
  On the subject of the great painter Fra Filippo Lippi, let me first recommend his 
biography by the painter Vasari for its rich though unauthenticated details.
  Also, there is the bright and shiny book Filippo Lippi, published by Scala, text by 
Gloria Fossi, which is for sale in numerous translations in Florence and other places in 
Italy as well. The only other book of which I know that is exclusively devoted to Filippo 
is the immense Fra Filippo Lippi by Jeffrey Ruda, subtitled Life and Work, with a 
Complete Catalogue. It is published by Phaidon Press in England and distributed in 
America by Harry N. Abrams.
  The most enjoyable books for the general reader that I have read on Florence and on the 
Medici have been by Christopher Hibbert, including his Florence: The Biography of a City, 
published by Norton, and The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, published by Morrow.
  There is also The Medici of Florence: A Family Portrait, by Emma Micheletti, published 
by Becocci Editore. The Medici by James Cleugh, published originally in 1975, is 
available now through Barnes & Noble.
  Popular books on Florence and Tuscany - travelers' observations, loving memoirs and 
tributes - abound. Primary sources in translation - that is, letters and diaries and 
histories written during the Renaissance in Florence - are everywhere on library and 
bookstore shelves.
  In trying to render correctly Vittorio's quotations from Aquinas, I used the 
translation of the Summa Theologica by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. In 
dealing with St. Augustine, I have used Henry Bettenson's translation of The City of God, 
published by Penguin Books.
  I caution readers to avoid abridged versions of Augustine's works. Augustine lived in a 
pagan world where the most theologically scrupulous Christians still believed in the 
demonic existence of fallen pagan gods. To understand Florence and her fifteenth-century 
romance with the joys and freedoms of a classical heritage, one must read Augustine and 
Aquinas in their full context.
  For those who would read more about the marvelous museum of San Marco, there are 
countless works on Fra Angelico, the monastery's most famous painter, which include 
descriptions and details regarding the building, and there are many books available on 
the architecture of Florence entire. I owe a debt of gratitude not only to the museum of 
San Marco for having so beautifully preserved the architectural work of Michelozzo, so 
praised in this novel, but for the publications readily available in the shop there on 
monastery's architecture and art.
  In closing, let me add this: if Vittorio were asked to name a recording of Renaissance 
music which best captures the mood of the High Mass and Communion which he witnessed at 
the Court of the Ruby Grail, it would inevitably be the All Souls' Vespers, requiem music 
from Cordoba Cathedral, performed by the Orchestra of the Renaissance led by Richard 
Cheetham - though I must confess, this music is described as circa 1570 - some years 
after Vittorio's fearful ordeal. The recording is available on the Veritas label, through 
Virgin Classics London and New York.
  In closing these notes, allow me one final quote from St. Augustine's The City of God:
  For God would never have created a man, let alone an angel, in the foreknowledge of his 
future evil state, if he had not known at the same time how he would put such creatures 
to good use, and thus enrich the course of the world history by the kind of antithesis 
which gives beauty to a poem.
  I personally do not know whether or not Augustine is right.
  But I do believe this: it is worthwhile to try to make a painting, or a novel... or a 
poem.
  
  Anne Rice.