Who works in the SLIO office?

Ludovico, «the Knight»

Ludovico Sforza, known as il Moro

At the office: the boss

In real life: Duke of Milan, patron of Leonardo da Vinci

Did you know? He married Beatrice d'Este in 1491.

Cecilia

Cecilia Gallerani

At the office: the boss's secret lover

In real life: mistress of Ludovico il Moro; Leonardo portrayed her in the Lady with an Ermine

Did you know? Today the portrait is not in Milan but in Kraków.

Beatrice

Beatrice d'Este

At the office: human resources… and the boss's wife

In real life: wife of Ludovico il Moro

Did you know? Some scholars recognise her in the Portrait of a Lady at the Ambrosiana, but her identity is debated.

Federica

Federico Borromeo

At the office: the founding partner

In real life: cardinal, Archbishop of Milan, founder of the Ambrosiana and a great collector

Did you know? He also appears in The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi).

Carla

Saint Charles Borromeo (san Carlo Borromeo)

At the office: the cost controller who cuts everything

In real life: Archbishop of Milan, austere reformer

Did you know? Federico was his grandnephew, not his cousin as is often written.

Michele

Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio

At the office: the talented intern

In real life: painter; his Basket of Fruit is at the Ambrosiana

Did you know? As a young man in Rome, he worked in the workshop of the Cavalier d'Arpino.

Giovanni

Giovanni Baglione

At the office: Michele's rival

In real life: painter and rival of Caravaggio

Did you know? In 1603 he sued him for defamation.

Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci

At the office: the IT guy, with his password «codex»

In real life: Renaissance genius

Did you know? The Codex Atlanticus is at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana; the Portrait of a Musician is in the Pinacoteca.

Galeazzo

Galeazzo Arconati

At the office: the finance director

In real life: Milanese nobleman

Did you know? He donated the Codex Atlanticus to the Ambrosiana in 1637.

Giovanna

Jan Brueghel the Elder

At the office: the project manager, the only one who actually works

In real life: Flemish painter, friend of Federico Borromeo

Did you know? The two kept up a long correspondence.

Raffaella

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)

At the office: the social media designer

In real life: Renaissance painter

Did you know? The Ambrosiana holds the cartoon for the School of Athens.

Ambrogio

Ambrogio de Predis

At the office: maintenance: gets in everywhere

In real life: painter at the Sforza court

Did you know? Ambrogio (Ambrose) is also the patron saint of Milan, hence the name «Ambrosiana».

Perpetua

Perpetua

At the office: the switchboard

In the novel: Don Abbondio's housekeeper

Did you know? She can't keep a secret: just like at the office.

Abbondio

Don Abbondio

At the office: the accountant close to retirement

In the novel: the parish priest who just wants a quiet life

Did you know? In the novel he says of himself: «courage is not something you can give yourself».

The Unnamed (l'Innominato)

The Unnamed (l'Innominato)

At the office: the mysterious consultant

In the novel: the lord whose name nobody speaks

Did you know? His name is never spoken.

Egidio

Egidio

At the office: the womanising sales rep

In the novel: the seducer of the Nun of Monza

Gertrude

Gertrude, the Nun of Monza

At the office: the ambitious junior lawyer

In the novel: the nun with a secret love

Did you know? The character is inspired by a real person, Marianna de Leyva.

Lucia

Lucia Mondella

At the office: the shy secretary

In the novel: the heroine of the novel