the 1400s had better wi-fi

Let’s talk about the Palazzo. All of the boys there are consistently referred to as just that, boys. Never men. They are still being educated, with the intention of being sent off to university to continue their studies before working. And I’d say the most conclusive thing is that the boys still face corporal punishment, which isn’t something you’d expect as part of an adult’s education (as far as I know, corporal punishment would only be used on adults if they were slaves or prisoners, so unless you want to make the argument that Amadeo and the Palazzo boys were in fact Marius’ slaves…). Certainly not, by any stretch of the imagination, adults of the world yet. And, as an additional note, it’s only Marius’ charm and good standing in society that allows him to get away with this without being turned into a social pariah, so certainly not something that was normal at the time either. 

Here’s a few quotes of various other characters referring to Amadeo, or to the Palazzo boys in general. 

“‘No, you cannot judge me! A magician you might be, but you are no angel, Marius. Not you with your boys.’” The Vampire Armand, page 91

“‘That boy of yours is a beauty. Don’t be hasty. Think this over. How much?’” The Vampire Armand, page 98

“‘Sir, you better look to your little boy. He’s a goner, the dance has changed. Tell him not to mock his elders.’” The Vampire Armand, page 101

“‘It’s only that the boys are so happy. They are all in bed now and sleeping.’” Blood and Gold, page 389-390

“‘Do you? With all these beautiful mortal children around you?’” Blood and Gold, page 444

From what I can remember and could find, there are only two instances where Amadeo is referred to as a man when he is in Venice. Once by Marius and once by Lord Harlech, and you’ll probably notice immediately why they stand out as different. 

“‘Oh, you saucy little demon,’ he said, ‘you look like an angel and hold forth like a tavern knave in that sweet crooning mannish voice.’” The Vampire Armand, page 71

“‘Not a vagrant hair yet of your beard, and yet you have the nether endowments of a man, and must now rise above the pleasures you have so loved.’”  The Vampire Armand, page 139

Yeah. The only times Amadeo is considered a man or mannish relates to sexuality, not his standing in society or his actual maturity. 

So, is Amadeo considered a child by societal standards within the books? I’d say yes. He’s only ever referred to as a child or a boy, he lives among the rest of the Palazzo boys who still have yet to come of age and go off to university. There’s no textual evidence that anybody at that time considered him to be anything other than a child. 

Now let’s talk about whether Marius considered Amadeo to be a child. We all know that he refers to and treats Amadeo as a child, but the obvious counter argument to that is “well, he’s 1500 years old, so everybody is a child to him.” This is true, and it’s reflected in the condescending way he often speaks to or views other characters. However, I think there’s a distinction between treating somebody like a child, and objectively viewing them as a child. And I think Amadeo is the latter. 

The best example for a quick comparison is probably Bianca. She isn’t a great deal older than Amadeo but here is how Marius refers to her. (Every quote from here on out will be from Blood and Gold). 

“Let me say a year or two had gone by before I was told of a very lovely and brilliant young woman who maintained a house always open to poets and playwrights and clever philosophers who could make their visits worth her while.” Page 401

“I was the one who read minds, and yet this child, this woman of nineteen or twenty years seemed to have read mine.” Page 402

“I was in my glory. I realized it quite suddenly and then something else struck me. This young woman was in her glory too.”  Page 403

“‘Except she was already a young woman when I came upon her,’ I responded” Page 439

In the second quote in particular you can see the difference in referring to her as a child in the sense that she is so much younger compared to him vs still seeing her as a woman in terms of her actual maturity. But let’s not use Bianca as a solitary example. Here’s how Marius refers to Botticelli, another mortal who is substantially younger than him. 

“I couldn’t take my eyes off him. This was the man who had done the great paintings in the Sistine Chapel, this ordinary man.” Page 358

Or Lord Harlech, who according to Amadeo in The Vampire Armand is around 25 years old. 

“And with the same knowledge, I quickly imbibed the horror that Lord Harlech, this Englishman, had cruelly, wantonly slain children no older than seven before he met in combat Amadeo himself.” Page 468

Or how about Raymond Gallant, a Talamasca agent who Marius also refers to as young.

“But this young mortal had nothing to do with the grand society in which I moved.” Page 510

“Nevertheless, it was a stunning promise, that which the young Englishman had made.” Page 512

“Then two months later, I met, in the most auspicious circumstances, the man himself.” Page 514

Or we could go further back, to Eudoxia, who was turned as a teenager but is over 200 years old when Marius meets her. 

“Torches burns all about us, and in the center of the room, on a gilded couch with purple silk pillows there reclined a gorgeous blood drinker woman” Page 227

Compared to Zenobia, who was a very recently turned teenager. 

“Quietly there appeared in the torchlight a young girl, a girl perhaps no older than Eudoxia when she’d been taken into Darkness” Page 294

Point is, Marius is clearly able to distinguish between adults and children, even when it comes to vampires. So now let’s look at how Marius refers to Amadeo. This obviously isn’t going to include every quote because we’d be here forever, I’ve just picked a few out that I think highlight it best, but I did painstakingly go through every page from Amadeo’s introduction to his kidnapping just to be certain there were no stray instances of Marius referring to him as a man or an adult. 

“It was a cruel small chamber in which they’d locked him, and into that chamber the light of a lamp flooded upon the child.” Page 416

“This child has come from a world so different from our own that he can make no sense of what happened to him.” Page 422

“I wanted this child - this boy who was now two years older than when I’d found him - and yet I wanted everything else for him, and my soul was torn, just as his heart was torn.” Page 438

“My vision was dim, and I knew that I was smiling - not a viscous smile, you understand, but something secretive and beyond anything the child had ever beheld.” Page 458

(This next one is the closest Marius ever comes to acknowledging Amadeo as an adult)

“He had lost this little battle and he walked away from me, looking once more like the child, though his full seventeen years as a mortal had rendered him more than that.” Page 491

“I watched as the luminous child removed his left glove and laid his chill supernatural hand upon the forehead of the sleeping father.” Page 501

There is, in this book, one solitary instance of Amadeo being referred to as a man rather than a boy or a child that I could find, and it is Amadeo himself who says it. 

“‘Remember me by these,’ he said, ‘and tell my mother that I was the man who came to see her tonight.’” Page 504

I can’t help but feel like I’ve phoned it in somewhat with this, because this is less literary analysis and more me just dumping a load of book quotes on you. But really, what is there to say? Sometimes a point is just so easy to make that you don’t really have to explain yourself. Marius referring to Amadeo as a child isn’t a “universal personality trait” of his, it’s something that specifically applies to Amadeo. This is just a concrete fact within the books. Amadeo was not considered an adult at the time. This is just a concrete fact within the books. 

Was what Marius was doing unlawful at the time? Probably not. Was it good? I don’t think so. If you want to make an argument that Marius is a lawfully good character, you can’t just point to the legal aspects as proof because legality doesn’t equal morality. We have to look at Marius’ intentions, and his intention was to groom Amadeo. 

“This was a foundling who could be educated for the Blood! This was a child utterly lost to life who could be reclaimed specifically for the Blood. Would his training be a night, a week, a month, a year? Only I need decide it. Whatever it was, I would make of him a child of the Blood.” Page 419

And I guess you could argue, based on Marius’ own principles as a vampire of killing only the “evil doer” that he is providing something of a public service by deciding to create another vampire. Yes, he’s essentially bringing another kill into the world, but that killer will, with his guidance, go on to rid the world of murderers and rapists and so on. But the thing is, that’s never something Marius even considers as part of his motivation. It’s a decision motivated entirely by his own desire for a companion. He wants somebody to spend eternity with, and finding himself unsatisfied with his options, he chooses a child who he can shape into his own ideal version of a companion.