Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Zaneta Lucia Zorzi loves books. And not just any books. She loves reading books that will teach her about the laws of the natural world around her. As the only daughter of a prominent Venetian family in the seventeenth century, Zaneta Lucia is expected to be a proper lady and to marry a man of influence. When, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she is introduced to the man her parents have chosen for her, she realizes that she either takes her life into her own hands and leaves Venice, or faces a life of servitude to a man who doesn’t like her, but rather cherishes his mistress, a vicious woman carrying his child and insistent that even if Zaneta Lucia marries her lover, she will still be the lady of the noble house. Zaneta vanishes in the night, changing into her brother’s old clothes and becoming Luca Manetti, a young boy eager to study at a university, particularly the University of Padua, and even more particularly under the instruction of Galileo. As she struggles to learn what she needs to know to pass the entrance exam, Luca fumbles with her new identity, challenging the confines of being a woman who wants to learn in a time when women are not allowed to study.

Sylvia Prince’s historical novel, The Zorzi Affair, grapples with the complex issue of equality of the sexes, which was basically non-existent in seventeenth century Italy. Her characters lead the plot to a convincing and controversial climax, one that only a brilliant mind like Galileo could resolve, or so it would seem. There is a small segment of romance towards the end, but the power of this story is found in a character, a woman, an intelligent woman, well before her time, struggling to become what she wants to be in a world that insists she must abide by parental and marital rule. Very strong characterization and good historical accuracy make this a stunning portrait of life in Renaissance Italy.