Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [3]
Isobella (Bel) of Cuthilgurdy, neighbour to the St Pols of Kilmirren
Andro Wodman, merchant; former Scots Archer in France
Euphemia (Phemie) Dunbar of Haddington Priory, daughter of George, Earl of March
William Roger (Whistle Willie), Court musician
Thomas Cochrane, master mason
Thomas (Thorn) Swift, Edinburgh merchant
Andrew Crawford, Edinburgh merchant
Richard, his son
John Bonkle, merchant
Andrew Haliburton, merchant
The Duchy of the Tyrol
Sigismond, Duke of Austria and Styria and Count of the Tyrol
Eleanor Stewart, his wife, aunt to King James of Scotland
Venice: Colonials and Diplomats
Caterino Zeno, envoy to Uzum Hasan of Persia
Martin, his clerk
Violante of Naxos, his wife, niece of Uzum Hasan’s Christian wife
Pietro, her legitimate son
Nerio, exile from Trebizond, her unacknowledged son
Catherine, widowed Queen of Cyprus
Marco Corner, sugar-grower in Cyprus, her father
Fiorenza of Naxos, his wife, mother of Queen Catherine and sister of Violante and Valenza
Josaphat Barbaro, Venetian envoy to Persia; former consul at Tana
Ambrogio Contarini, Venetian envoy to Persia
Father Stephano Testa, his chaplain and secretary
Augostino Contarini, his brother, sopracomito to Barbaro in Cyprus
Francesco Contarini, Venetian governor of Albania
Paolo Ognibene, Venetian envoy to Persia
Bartolomeo Liompardo, Venetian envoy to Persia
Genoa: Colonials and Diplomats
Antoniotto della Gabella, Genoese consul at Caffa
Oberto Squarciafico, Treasurer for Genoa at Caffa
Christoforo, Governor of Soldaia
Florence & Bologna: Colonials and Travelling Professionals
Arnolfo Tedaldi, Medici agent in Poland
Nicholai Giorgio de’ Acciajuoli, Greek-Florentine nobleman
Rudolfo Fioravanti degli Alberti (’Aristotele’), engineer
Andreas, his son
Pietro, his pupil
Gothia and Black Sea Circassians
Isáac, prince of Mánkup and Gothia
Aleksandre, his brother and successor
Abdan Khan, Circassian leader of Gothian armies
Marta, Circassian housekeeper in Fasso
Muscovy
Zoe/Sophia Palaeologina, wife of Grand Duke Ivan III and niece of the last Emperor of Constantinople
Ivan, her stepson
Maria, Grand Duke Ivan’s mother
Andrew, Grand Duke Ivan’s brother
Boris, another brother
Dymitr Wiśniowiecki, fur trader
Metropolitan Philip
Brother Ostafi of the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius
Brother Gubka of the same
Marco Rosso, Grand Duke Ivan’s envoy to Persia
Persia
Uzum Hasan, prince of the Turcoman Horde of the White Sheep, and chief ruler in Persia
Theodora, his wife, daughter of John, Emperor of Trebizond, and aunt of Caterino Zeno’s wife Violante
Hadji Mehmet, legate of Uzum Hasan
Tartars
Mengli-Girey, Khan of the Crim Horde, Qirq-yer
Karaï Mirza, his constable
Eminek, brother of Mamak, the late Tudun (Tartar Governor) of Caffa
Sertak, son of the widow of Mamak
Akhmat (Mohammed), Khan of the Golden Horde, Saray
Ottoman Turks
Sultan Mehmet II of Istanbul/Constantinople
Gedik Ahmed Pasha, his Grand Vizier
Cairo
Sultan Qayt Bey, Circassian Mameluke
Father Lorenzo, Greek Orthodox steward and Treasurer of the monastery of St Catherine’s, Mount Sinai
Imam Ibrahiim of the University of al-Azhar, Cairo
INTRODUCTION
THE ELEGANT WORKING out of designs historical and romantic, political and commercial, psychological and moral, over a multivolume novel is a Dorothy Dunnett specialty. In her first work in this genre, the six-volume “Lymond Chronicles,” suspense was created and relieved in each volume, and over the whole set of volumes; the final, beautifully inevitable, romantic secret was disclosed on the very last page of the last volume. “The House of Niccolò” does the same.
The reader of Caprice and Rondo, then, may wish to move directly to the narrative for a first experience of that pattern, with a reader’s faith in an experienced author’s caretaking; the novel itself briefly supplies the information you need to know from past novels, telling its own tale while completing and inaugurating others. What follows, as a sketch of the geopolitical and dramatic terrain unfolding in the volumes