Amico di Sandro

Frederick William Rolfe, sometimes known as Baron Corvo, was an English writer, artist, photographer, and eccentric. Rolfe was born in Cheapside, London, the son of James Rolfe, a piano manufacturer and tuner, and Ellen Elizabeth, née Pilcher. He left school at the age of fourteen to become a teacher. He briefly taught at The King's School in Grantham, where the then-headmaster, Ernest Hardy, subsequently the principal of Jesus College in Oxford, became a lifelong friend. In 1886, he converted to Roman Catholicism and received confirmation from Cardinal Manning. With his conversion, he developed a tremendous desire to become a priest, which he pursued throughout his life despite being repeatedly thwarted and never realized. In 1887, he was sponsored to train at St Mary's College in Oscott, near Birmingham, then at the Pontifical Scots College in Rome in 1889, but both rejected him due to his inability to concentrate on clerical studies and his erratic behavior. At this point, he joined the entourage of the Duchess Sforza Cesarini, who he said had adopted him as a grandson and given him the title of "Baron Corvo".

"O that fine octagonal face of his-the great dark thoughtful eyes-the straight broad nose pointed at its low tip-the wide firm mouth with its full lower lip, curbed by the very thin bow of the upper-the very square strong jaw-the expression insolent because modest, imperious because shy,-but a face which could smile. And O the robust and generous young form, noble and opulent in contour-the ardent force restrained of him. To me, from the beginning, he was something apart, an individual whom one must either abhor, or adore-nothing else-and, as I saw him close for the first time, staring at him quite unreservedly, I knew what my feelings were."Here, presented for the first time in paperback format, is Amico di Sandro, the unfinished novel by Frederick Rolfe, a.k.a. Baron Corvo, dealing with the rambunctious life of Sandro Botticelli.An eccentric tale of art and Renaissance times for the connoisseur.