Prologue: When Cultures Meet.
Mercante di Venezia, Giovanni de Medici.
"Calm yourself Giovanni," she says. "It is only a meeting"
"A meeting, a meeting," I putter to myself. "Only a meeting, only just a meeting with the largest guild in all of Venezia."
"And I'm sure they will accept you instantly, what with your speech and your charm and your mercantile abilities,"
My wonderous wife, she could have had a prince but no; the sweet dove, my Piccarda, choose me.
I was frightfully tired after preparing my speech to give the Guild of Merchants to accept me into the inner circle of the most powerful guild of all of Venezia, save for the Church, (may God bless us.) Twas midsummer in Venezia, the cool morning air drifting in off of the bay, cooling my sweat but not my anxiety.
