Posted by Nebo on May 05, 1999 at 13:32:01:
I spend my last week-end in Firenze (Florence), and there I found a book which interested me.
Its title was "Le veglie di Neri" (Neri's vigils); I opened and started to read it: but it wasn't about our Neri.
The "Neri" of that book was the author: Renato Fucini, a.k.a. Neri Tanfucio; he was an Italian writer, born in 1843 and died in 1921, who wrote some stories in Florence dialect.
Maybe Mr. Shiff based his character's name upon that writer's nickname (mmm, very improbable, but...)?
Hoping someone will be interested in, I say "ciao ciao".
Nebo