OCTAVO Characters

25-year-old American graduate student with two degrees in science and a side gig authenticating art for collectors

Retired British art-history professor with a gift for romance languages and a taste for all things beautiful

Editor at Harker Publishing in New York, who hasn’t had a strong bestseller in years

Publisher at Harker and Peter Chenoweth’s superior

Wealthy art collector who hired Scarlett and Artie to authenticate a newly discovered painting from the Renaissance

Artist and inventor, widely considered the leading polymath of the High Renaissance (1452-1519)

Leonardo’s last pupil, painting assistant, and secretary at the end of his life (1491-1571)

Leonardo’s longtime assistant and occasional lover, born Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno (1480-1524)

Leonardo’s friend and collaborator, the metallurgist and alchemist Tommaso Masini (1462-1520)

AKA Aldus Manutius, Venetian proprietor of the Aldine Press, Italy’s most innovative publishing company (1450-1515)

Poet and literary theorist who helped Aldo Manuzio popularize portable books in the Italian language (1470-1547)

Master typographer who designed timeless typefaces, including the first italics (1450-1518)

Duchess of Ferrara, wife of Alfonso d’Este, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and Bembo’s lover (1480-1519)

Marchioness of Mantua, wife of Duke Francesco Gonzaga and Lucrezia’s sister-in-law (1474-1539)

Franciscan, mathematician, and Leonardo’s best friend, known as the “father of accounting” (1447-1517)

Duke of Milan’s son-in-law and member of the Academia Leonardi Vinci (1458-1525)

Physician at the former Milanese court and member of the Academia Leonardi Vinci (1460-1520)

Architect, painter, and planner of St. Peter’s, and member of the Academia Leonardi Vinci (1444-1514)

Bartolomeo Suardi, architect and painter, Bramante’s friend and former student (1456-1530)