One Illumined Thread

Contents
 
 
 Dedication
 A Note on the Text
 Contents
 Part I
 
 1. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 2. Florence, 1497
 3. Ḥevron, 41 BCE
 4. Florence, 1503
 5. Beit HaKerem, 38 BCE
 6. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 7. Florence, 1504
 8. Beit HaKerem, 37 BCE
 9. Florence, 1512
 10. Beit HaKerem, 29 BCE
 11. Florence, 1513
 12. Beit HaKerem, 29 BCE
 
 Part II
 
 13. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 14. Florence, 1513
 15. Yerushalayim, 20 BCE
 16. Florence, 1514
 17. Beit HaKerem, 7 BCE
 18. Fiesole, 1515
 19. Beit HaKerem, 7 BCE
 20. Florence, 1516
 21. Beit HaKerem, 6 BCE
 
 Part III
 
 22. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 23. Florence, 1516
 24. Beit HaKerem, 5 BCE
 25. Florence, 1516
 26. Beit HaKerem, 5 BCE
 27. Florence, 1517
 28. Beit HaKerem, 5 BCE
 29. Florence, 1529
 30. Beit HaKerem, 6 CE
 31. Adelaide, Spring 2018
 
 Author’s Note
 Acknowledgements
 Guide to Aramaic Language Used
 Guide to Italian Language Used
 About the Author
 Copyright
 
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Contents
 Part I
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Dedication
 For D, my love.
 Across how many lifetimes
 has my heart found yours?
 How many more to come?
 Never enough.
 
 
 A Note on the Text
 While One Illumined Thread is a work of fiction, it is inspired by the real-life wife of a Renaissance artist and two women in one of her husband’s more famous paintings. This is an invented narrative that draws on historical and biblical events. However, the artistic licence used in the rendering of characters and in the timing of inventions and events is an invitation to join me in the ongoing – and, in my mind, invaluable – enquiry into what we think we know about ourselves, each other and our worlds.
 Aramaic was the language believed to have been spoken in the period set in Ein Kerem (Beit HaKerem). Please refer to the glossary and translation notes for a guide to names and places. Some electronic readers are incapable of rendering the symbol used for a dotted H (eg in the Aramaic spelling of Ḥevron). If your reader displays a broken symbol, note that it should be pronounced similar to an H. 
 
 
 Contents
 Dedication
 A Note on the Text
 Part I
 1. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 2. Florence, 1497
 3. Ḥevron, 41 BCE
 4. Florence, 1503
 5. Beit HaKerem, 38 BCE
 6. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 7. Florence, 1504
 8. Beit HaKerem, 37 BCE
 9. Florence, 1512
 10. Beit HaKerem, 29 BCE
 11. Florence, 1513
 12. Beit HaKerem, 29 BCE
 Part II
 13. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 14. Florence, 1513
 15. Yerushalayim, 20 BCE
 16. Florence, 1514
 17. Beit HaKerem, 7 BCE
 18. Fiesole, 1515
 19. Beit HaKerem, 7 BCE
 20. Florence, 1516
 21. Beit HaKerem, 6 BCE
 Part III
 22. Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 23. Florence, 
 I
 The forms of bodies
 could not be understood in detail
 but for shadow.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI
 
 
 1
 Adelaide, Autumn 2018
 The girl in the mirror stares back at me and does not blink. It hurts to blink. Tears crest the balls of her cheeks and I clench against the desire to ache for her. She should know better. Why doesn’t she know better? Although she is my exact image, she is not me. This is what I tell myself.
 I reach my hand towards her, rest my fingertip on the purpling stain of skin around her eye. The