The Lost Journals of Michelangelo: Volume I

By Gayle Millbank

In 1486 when Michelangelo was eleven years old he was given a book of blank pages from his brother Lionardo. It was his only birthday gift. He had been living in Firenze one year with his father and brothers and was very homesick for the hills of Settignano. He decided to write in the book and keep it secret from his brothers.
The journal (as imagined by the author after extensive research) follows him through to thirty-two years of age. It includes his good fortune to meet Granacci and become apprenticed to Ghirlandaio, and then being catupulted to seeming princehood at the palace of Lorenzo Medici where he studied with Bertolo who was a student of Donatello. See life through Michelangelo's eyes as he struggles with the Rome Pieta and David.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gayle Millbank
• Release date: Jan 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9780973142174

Gayle Millbank

In recent years with my concerns about global warming I have been thinking about Earth's future. We need a clean source of energy and to expand to space colonies. Hence Zeta Star Mizar White and her life in 6012 evolved.I hope you enjoy it. More down to Earth and the Italian Renaissance: I have studied figurative clay-sculpting for many years. So naturally when I visited Florence in 2000 I concentrated on Michelangelo's sculptures. In his home I viewed his first bas relief, The Battle of the Centaurs, and was so close to it I could see his fine chisel marks. David of course was incredible but Michelangelo's last pieta with Nicodemus was breath-taking. However, The Medici Tomb moved me to tears as I was overwhelmed with emotion in the midst of so many of his bigger-than- life sculptures. On returning to Victoria I decided to write his diary. After thorough research into his life, the popes, and the Medici family; each year on his birthday I imagined what his life was like and who or what was influencing it and wrote in his journal. The Lost Journals of Michelangelo flowed easily and are here for you to read. During my research I discovered Leonardo and Michelangelo were in Florence and creating battle scenes in the same room for three months. Florence 1505: Leonardo battles Michelangelo a stage play evolved.

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Reviews for The Lost Journals of Michelangelo

[dksmeditation · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the novel approach to depicting the growth of the young man and making Michelangelo come to life as a real flesh and blood youth who had a burning passion and zeal to learn from the masters and then out master them. Many historians put Michelangelo on a pedestal like an oversized demigod made in heaven. The author brings Michelangelo back to earth as a real man who had to grow, learn, live a disciplined life, and succeed in making enough money to support himself and his father and brothers. He had the talent and ambition to focus his energy on what he most wanted to do - namely sculpture the beauty of man made in the image of God. I can't wait to read part 2 in the sequel.