Pasquale's Angel

Pasquale's Angel is an alternate history novel by Paul J. McAuley, published in 1994. Set in early 16th-century Florence, the novel depicts a world where Leonardo da Vinci has abandoned art for engineering, triggering an industrial revolution during the Italian Renaissance. The story follows Pasquale, a young painter and pupil of Giovanni Battista Rosso, who, after the murders of the artist Raphael and his assistant Giulio Romano, partners with the political journalist Machiavelli to investigate. Their inquiry uncovers a broad conspiracy against the backdrop of tensions with Spain and a Savonarolan uprising.

Pasquale’s Angel combines steampunk-inspired alternate history, detective fiction, fantasy, and coming-of-age elements. The novel includes references to Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe, and Frankenstein cinema, while exploring themes of scientific and technological progress and its societal consequences.

The novel received positive critical reception and won the 1995 Sidewise Award for Best Long Form Alternate History. Its companion short story, The Temptation of Dr. Stein, set in the same universe, won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in the same year.