Warning: this post contains spoilers for Oil and Marble!
Many readers ask me whether the big flood in Oil and Marble is historical fact or imagined, so I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you the real history behind that part of the novel. This post is also inspired, in part, by the fact that today — Nov 4, 2020 — is the 54th anniversary of the big flood that ripped through Florence on November 4, 1966 because my research into THIS flood helped me re-construct the details of the 1504 flood!
The next time you are in Florence, look around on the sides of buildings and you will see various historical floods marked on the sides of buildings.
I remember the first time these signs were pointed out to me and I thought… the water would’ve been OVER MY HEAD? It’s overwhelming when you see really let the meaning of such signs land on you mentally. Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with Florence flood pictures.
But now onto the flood depicted in Oil and Marble in 1504.
Yes, Leonardo da Vinci really did attempt to divert the Arno River as part of a military tactic to rob Pisa of a valuable waterway (Florence and Pisa had been at war on and off for hundreds of years; the Florentines were always trying to get the upper hand). And yes, Niccolo Machiavelli really did have a hand in strategizing this project. And yes, in 1504, there really was a giant storm which flooded the river, collapsed the project and killed 80 men. And, from my perspective, after this flood, as evidenced in his notebooks, Leonardo’s mental relationship to water seems to change; before the flood he sees water as something to be managed; afterwards it becomes an uncontrollable force of nature.
However, I DID change some details of the flood to serve the story. Here are the major changes:
I moved the location of the primary work site. The real site was located several miles downstream of Florence, but I didn’t want Leonardo or anyone else to have to hop on a horse and ride anytime they wanted to go to the site, so I moved it closer to town.
I moved the date. The real flood did not happen until OCTOBER of 1504; I moved the event to the spring to accommodate the story.
By the time the project flooded, Leonardo was not the hands-on manager of the site (as depicted in Oil and Marble there was another foreman). But I do see evidence that Leonardo was still very emotionally connected to the flood, so I leave him more physically involved in the later stages of the Arno diversion project than perhaps he was
There is no evidence that Michelangelo’s brother, Buonarroto, was working at the flood site. Buonarroto did have a lot of odd jobs at this time of his life, but there’s no record that working on the diversion project was one of them. It was just a great way to have the flood personally impact Michelangelo
So, there’s the “truth” about the flood. Leonardo’s attempt to “play God” and divert the Arno River is real. So are the storm and the 80 workmen killed. So, I believe, is the emotional impact that this incident had on Leonardo’s psyche. AND the impact that this flood — and the many other floods that have swept through the city during its long history — have had on the psyche of Florence.
The rest is why we read and write historical fiction… not just to learn a little something about real stories from history (and hopefully be inspired to learn the “real story” behind those events), but to try to understand what it must’ve FELT like to live through those moments in the past…
So the next time you’re walking through Florence, keep an eye out for those “flood markers” on the sides of the buildings and perhaps, even, ask a local what THEY remember about the last time Florence flooded…
(FYI, there are LOTS of places to read about the flood, including in Walter Isaacson’s bio of Leonardo, but here’s one of the most detailed online re-tellings of the event: https://erenow.net/biographies/leonardo-da-vinci-the-flights-of-the-mind/60.php )