Discovering the Mysteries of Bomarzo: Guest Post by Author Linda Lappin
Plus a chance to win Linda's novel, SIGNATURES IN STONE
When I first started working on In The Garden of Monsters, I dove headfirst into finding all I could that had been written about the Sacro Bosco, also called the Park of the Monsters, situated an hour north of Rome in Bomarzo. That included primarily academic publications, but I was delighted to find a few novels, including Signatures in Stone, by Linda Lappin. Then, during the pandemic, I was lucky to be able to attend a Zoom session about finding inspiration in the garden, featuring Linda, as well as novelists Teresa Cutler-Broyles, author of Dante's Garden, and Gigi Pandian, author of Michelangelo's Ghost, who chat with one of my recent guest posters, Mary Jane Cryan, historical writer and expert on the Tuscia region. The recording of that session is here:
I asked Linda about her experience living in the region, and more about her novel, Signatures of Stone, which you can win by sticking around till the end of this post!
Unveiling the Secrets and Symbolism of a Renaissance Garden in Tuscia Viterbese - by Linda Lappin
For more than thirty years, I have divided my time between Rome and a village in the Tuscia Viterbese – an area north of Rome once inhabited by the Etruscans, and later chosen by noble Roman families of the 16th and 17th centuries for their summer residences. Tuscia, the northern tip of the Lazio Region bordering Tuscany, is an area of stunning natural beauty, with gorges and canyons, massive rock formations, geothermic activity, hot springs and volcanic lakes, thick woods teeming with wild boar and porcini mushrooms.
Every hilltop boasts a quaint medieval tower, castle, church, monastery, or Renaissance villa. Its haunting landscapes are celebrated in Alice Rohrwacher’s recent film La Chimera, and in D.H. Lawrence’s famous book: Etruscan Places.
Etruscan and pre-Etruscan ruins and sacred sites are scattered everywhere: many just out in the open, in isolated places in the countryside, in the middle of woods or on abandoned farmland for you to explore at any time of day.
Another feature of Tuscia is its formal gardens, created by Renaissance and baroque architects for their noble patrons. These are esoteric story-telling gardens, illustrating narratives through their pathways, plants, statues, and symbols—and in some cases, creating positive astrological influences that might help change a negative fate. One of the most famous of these gardens/parks is the Park of Monsters, also known as The Sacred Wood, of Bomarzo, built in the sixteenth century by the Italian nobleman, Vicino Orsini, as a memorial to his wife. 2023 marked the five hundredth anniversary of its birth.
This park is unique in many ways among Italian formal gardens. Firstly, it is populated by a legion of giant, grotesque, hallucinatory sculptures – representing monsters, gods, imaginary beings of every form, including the Hell Mouth, the most famous of its sculptures, which has served as an inspiration of dozens of architects and artists. Secondly, nearly all these sculptures have been carved in boulders and rock formations in situ without those stones being cut, uprooted or removed from the spot where they emerge from the ground. This is an important detail as in the sixteenth century, it was generally believed that stones “grew” in the earth like teeth and bones in our bodies, and that a quarried stone was, essentially, “dead.” Thus the stone sculptures in Bomarzo retained their organic link to the earth, and were still “alive.” Thirdly, no one knows who provided the original designs for the sculptures (although there are many theories), and lastly, no one knows exactly what the whole design actually means or represents.
Still, after centuries, the Sacred Wood eludes interpretation. Tomes have been written explaining the individual sculptures and their composite meaning. These studies are extremely erudite, showing the relation of the figures to great works of literature, such as Orlando Furioso, or to Seneca, to alchemy, or to that cryptic picture book, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, by Francesco Colonna, depicting a journey of initiation through emblems. There is a general consensus that the park represents an itinerary of self-knowledge connected to the figure of Persephone/Proserpina—the lost child at the heart of the ancient Eleusinian mysteries.
In this reading of the park’s meaning, visitors must make a journey through the underworld, undergo a series of trials in order to face up to their own darkness, obsessions, illusions, fears – what Jung called “the Shadow” -- manifested by the monstrous statues. Its whole point was to lead the visitor down into hell in search of rebirth, as in the myth of Demeter and Persephone.
This myth underpins the plot of my novel Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery. (Pleasureboat Studio 2013, 2024, winner 2014 Daphne Du Maurier Award for Mystery Writing).
In my novel, crime writer Daphne DuBlanc comes to Bomarzo with other artists to write a new book, but ends up as the prime suspect for a murder that takes place in the park. Daphne has a theory that by reading signs or “signatures” scattered all around us, we can uncover hidden truths and even predict the future. The character of Daphne is loosely based on Mary Butts, an English writer of the twenties, who had a passion for occult philosophy. Her notebooks discuss the theory of signatures, or correspondences, according to which every sign in the outer world points to a meaning in the inner world. Daphne adopts this concept when solving crimes. She views the statues of the park as signatures of their creator’s interior world, through which the artist achieved a sort of immortality.
Daphne must use her extraordinary intuitive gifts and sleuthing skills to solve the murder and save her skin, inadvertently discovering the secret of the Park of Monsters –and of its destructive and redemptive powers over all those who wander there.
You can keep up with Linda at her website, or sign up for her substack. Her most recent post about the film La Chimera is fascinating.
WIN A COPY OF SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY
In SIGNATURES IN STONE, readers are transported to the atmospheric setting of the Monster Park of Bomarzo, a sixteenth-century garden adorned with mythical creatures believed to represent a terrifying journey into the realm of nightmares. Against this backdrop, four travelers find themselves intertwined in a fate-driven Italian holiday. Daphne, a British writer of occult mysteries, her down-on-his-luck aristocratic publisher Nigel, the aspiring artist and American gigolo Clive, and the art historian Professor Finestone, all converge in a dilapidated villa near the park. As the group explores their heart's desires amidst the haunting sculptures, they become entangled in a web of intrigue and danger. When Daphne, renowned for writing cozy murder tales, becomes the prime suspect in a shocking homicide, she must confront her own darkness and rely on her sleuthing skills to uncover the terrifying truth. The Monster Park of Bomarzo becomes the backdrop for a "Gothic-in-Wonderland" phantasmagoria, immersing readers in a suspenseful and thrilling journey.
This edition is accompanied by a magnificent new cover and a series of Tarot card illustrations by Santa Fe artist Carolyn Florek.
SIGNATURES IN STONE was the OVERALL WINNER in the DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARDS for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense Writing - best mystery of 2013.
This giveaway closed at midnight ET on 06/30/24. Winners will be notified within 48 hours of the giveaway closing and announced in my next newsletter/post.
Important to Note: You must be 18+ and a United States resident (pesky international laws make it tricky to do giveaways worldwide). If you are someone who loves to read the rules, you can find the obligatory info here.
WHAT’S BRINGING ME JOY
The first trade review of IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS is in! And they liked it! From Publisher’s Weekly:
This is the story of this artist and her collection. She lives in an apartment within the amazing Doria Pamphilij in Rome. It’s in Italian with subtitles.
If you love food and love Italy, and haven’t read THE CHEF’S SECRET or FEAST OF SORROW, click the links to learn where to buy your copy! 🍒🍗🍷 And now you can pre-order IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS!
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Just visited Tuscia for the first time last week and really loved it. I managed to experience Etruscan tombs in Tarquinia, Renaissance frescoes and gardens at Villa Farnese, and the medieval borgo in Viterbo all in one day. What a remarkable region.
I just adore Tuscia. It is the first part of Italy that I explored & it has a special place in my heart. That is fascinating about stones being alive!