Romola (186263) is a historical novel written by Mary Ann Evans under the pen name of George Eliot set in the fifteenth century. It is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual artistic religious and social point of view". The story takes place amidst actual historical events during the Italian Renaissance and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history.

Florence 1492: Christopher Columbus has sailed towards the New World and Florence has just mourned the death of its leader Lorenzo de' Medici. In this setting a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger who introduces himself as Tito Melema a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence assisting Bardo with classical studies he falls in love with Romola. However Tessa falls in love with Tito and the two are "married" in a mock ceremony.