Valeria Montaldi

Who is Valeria Montaldi?

Valeria Montaldi is an Italian journalist and writer.

She was born in Milan, where she earned a degree in History of Art Criticism. After about twenty years of journalism dedicated to the art, cultural places and people in Milan, in 2001 she published her first novel, The Wool Merchant, immediately acclaimed by both public and critics, and which received three prizes: the Premio Ostia Mare in Roma, the Premio Città di Cuneo and the Premio Frignano. The Wool Merchant was followed in 2003 by The Lord of the Hawk, and in 2006 by The English Monk: both were selected for the Premio Bancarella. The Emperor’s Manuscript is her last novel and is to be released in September 2008.

Montaldi's stories take place in the mid-1200s and move from the castles in Val D'Aosta to the streets of Milan, from the woods of Lombard county to the Mark of Treviso. The adventures of aristocrats, commoners, monks, heretics, merchants, soldiers, witches and inquisitors are woven together in the narrative. The thread connecting it all is the Benedictine friar Matthew, who, even in the latest novel, finds himself involved in dramatic events set about by a mysterious illuminated manuscript. Many seem to desperately cover the codex, and this creates a series of intrigues that ends up involving the highest dignitaries of the civil and religious powers of the time. The author lives and works in Milan.