The Duke's Prize

""The Duke's Prize: A Story of Art and Heart in Florence"" is a novel written by Maturin Murray Ballou. The story is set in the beautiful city of Florence, Italy, during the Renaissance period. The protagonist of the story is a young artist named Angelo, who dreams of becoming a great painter. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Bianca, who is the daughter of a wealthy nobleman. However, Bianca's father disapproves of their relationship and forbids them from seeing each other.Angelo is determined to win Bianca's heart and decides to enter a painting competition organized by the Duke of Florence. The prize for the competition is a large sum of money, which Angelo hopes to use to win Bianca's father's approval. However, the competition is tough, and Angelo faces many challenges along the way.As Angelo works on his painting, he meets many other artists and learns about the art world in Florence. He also discovers a dark secret about Bianca's family, which threatens to destroy their relationship forever. Angelo must use all his skills and determination to overcome these obstacles and win both the Duke's prize and Bianca's heart.""The Duke's Prize"" is a captivating story of love, art, and ambition set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction, romance, and art.The thought of the bare possibility of the connection as sanctioned by the duke, so embittered his feelings as to render him disagreeable to all about him. His conscious pride and self-interest both prompted him in this emergency; for in the case of Florinda's marrying Petro, as we have already intimated, there would be some important pecuniary interest of his own benefited thereby-and then his old aristocratic notions were shocked at the prospect of the plebeian match.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.