ITENFR
Aurea Scripta Editions

A Mari Usque Ad Mare

A historical saga in ten volumes: routes, trade and the destinies of one family, from the seventeenth century to the dawn of the modern world
Armand Du Silence

The saga

"A Mari Usque Ad Mare": not just a motto, but a route to follow.

Two seas, two lands, a destiny that spans centuries. From the shores of Europe to the waters of the New World, from African routes to the markets of the East, the saga follows the generations of a merchant family through three centuries of history: journeys, conquests, trade, fractures.

Each volume portrays an era and a different face of power: the blood of conquest, the silence of trafficking, the calculation of the great trading companies, the ideas that change the world. Not a celebration, but an honest account of how the modern world was born, and of its price.

Four novels are already published. The route is charted through to the tenth volume.

The ten volumes of the saga A Mari Usque Ad Mare by Armand Du Silence

Editorial review

Independent editorial reviews of the novels in the saga

The novels

Cover of Volume I From One Sea to Another
Volume I

From One Sea to Another

From the salt of the Mediterranean to the frozen edge of the world.

1653: the docks of Livorno are a theatre of dreams and tar, where one man’s choice will echo across centuries. Carlo Martini, a porter’s son bound to the rhythm of the tides, sees his world collapse when a devastating plague turns his home into a city of ghosts. Driven by a dying promise, he flees the salt-stained ports of Marseille for the brutal winters of New France. Alongside a resilient band of settlers and the courageous Filles du Roi, Carlo expected to find a blank wilderness, only to encounter a world already written in blood and arrows. In this land that never forgets, where the drums of the Iroquois herald an uncertain dawn, they must learn that survival is a pact, not a guarantee.

From the warmth of Italy to the vastness of an untamed continent, a lineage is born to bridge two oceans.

When the map ends and the forest begins to breathe, will you have the courage to write the first line of a new world?

Cover of Volume II Blood and Soil
Volume II

Blood and Soil

The soil demands blood. Memory offers no mercy.

1689: what was meant to be the dawn of a dream in the New World becomes the most brutal of nightmares.

When Mohawk warriors strike in the dead of night, the Martiny family is engulfed by senseless violence. Carlo "Charles" Martini, an Italian builder who sought a future in New France, fights with every fibre of his being to protect his own, but fate is cruel: three of his children are snatched away, destined to grow up as strangers within the enemy tribe. While Charles struggles to rebuild his life within the walls of Québec, his brother Antoine refuses to surrender. In the northern wilderness, a blood bond forged with Kwame, a man escaped from the shackles of slavery, ignites an ambition that stretches far beyond the frontier, reaching towards the gold and the shadows of Africa.

Blood and Soil is the gripping second volume of the epic adventure saga A Mari Usque Ad Mare. A forty-year odyssey of rebirth and betrayal, sweeping from the savage American frontier to the first voyages towards the Dark Continent, following the iron will of a family that refuses to be broken.

In a world ruled by chaos, the only bond that endures is the one etched in the scars of the past.

Cover of Volume III The Breath of Africa
Volume III

The Breath of Africa

ONE BLOODLINE. THREE CONTINENTS. AN EMPIRE FORGED IN THE FIRES OF SURVIVAL.

In the frozen heart of eighteenth-century Québec, Madeleine Cartier Martini governs a legacy built on steel and secrets. From her circular study, she pulls the threads of a global trade network, navigating a world where a single degree of error can cost a son’s life. As the winter snow muffles the sounds of the French colonies, the Martini name remains a shield against the encroaching shadows of the British and the Dutch. Yet, as she unrolls the family tree, Madeleine must confront a devastating truth: they are no longer just a family, but a mechanism of power that reproduces itself endlessly. In a world of predators, even a matriarch can find herself hunted.

Across the Atlantic, where the scorched earth of Africa meets the relentless tide of the trade wars, Antoine Martini and his son Gabriel fight to hold Fort Martini against all odds. Alongside them stands Toussaint, the legendary ‘Black Lightning’, a man whose vulnerability is as exposed as his courage in the heat of battle. Here, the ‘sons of snow and blood’ must blend European ambition with the unyielding spirit of the African coast, defending a future that belongs to the bastards and the brave. But when the jungle breathes, it whispers of a betrayal that no fortress can keep out.

As Charles II embarks on a perilous voyage from the gold-dusted shores of Benin towards the unknown horizons of the East, the boundary between blood and capital dissolves. A new generation of Martinis—mixed, illegitimate, and fierce—must prove their worth in a landscape where memory is the only currency that matters. From the high seas to the heart of the Ashanti empire, they will learn that the Martini system is not just about profit, but about the ferocity with which one defends a name.

To claim the future, they must first survive the breath of a continent that never forgets.

Legacies are not inherited; they are bled for.

Cover of Volume IV The Indies and Silk
Volume IV

The Indies and Silk

One thread of silk to bind the world. One secret to unravel an empire.

In the waning glory of Florence, the Medici’s gold no longer glitters as it once did. As the silk trade falters and the shadow of ruin looms over the Tuscan capital, a desperate letter from the frozen wilds of Quebec sparks a gamble that will alter the course of history. From the merchant tables of Italy to the treacherous banks of the Thames, a new path is being forged—but in the race for prosperity, the price of entry is often paid in more than just coin.

Across the vast expanse of the "Martini route", the scent of spices and the shimmer of fabric mask a growing darkness. While bankers in exile plot their return and explorers navigate the sweltering docks of Calicut, an ancient rhythm begins to pulse from the heart of the jungle. It is a ceremonial drum, a hypnotic warning that some treasures are guarded by ghosts who do not take kindly to the touch of foreign greed. To conquer the market, one must first survive the shadows that follow every ship like a silent shroud.

As Charles II faces a destiny written in the humid air of a distant bay, the boundaries between commerce and curse finally dissolve. A wooden cross, polished by the hands of the unseen, points like a loaded weapon at the heart of an era, marking the end of innocence for those who dared to cross the seas. The world is shrinking, the maps are being redrawn, and the hunters are about to discover they have been the prey all along.

The silk may be soft, but the hands that weave it are stained with the ink of a final, inescapable judgment.

Forthcoming volumes

  1. Cover of Volume V The Sun and the CrossVolume VThe Sun and the Cross
    When faith accompanies power, it becomes an instrument of conquest.
  2. Cover of Volume VI The Spice RouteVolume VIThe Spice Route
    When violence is no longer required, calculation remains.
  3. Cover of Volume VII Shadows of EuropeVolume VIIShadows of Europe
    When the world seems already mapped, power changes shape.
  4. Cover of Volume VIII The Vast Southern OceanVolume VIIIThe Vast Southern Ocean
    Beyond already charted routes, there are spaces that resist control.
  5. Cover of Volume IX The Blood of the RevolutionVolume IXThe Blood of the Revolution
    When ideas cross the ocean, they never arrive unchanged.
  6. Cover of Volume X The Fate of the WorldVolume XThe Fate of the World
    After centuries of journeys, conquests and fractures, the world has become a system.

The saga is planned in ten volumes: titles V to X are in progress.

The author

Portrait of the author Armand Du Silence
Armand Du Silence

Author of historical fiction. With the saga "A Mari Usque Ad Mare" he reconstructs three centuries of trade routes and family destinies, pairing the sweep of the adventure novel with the precision of historical reconstruction.

Published by Aurea Scripta Editions in Italian, English and French.

Where to find the novels

All volumes on Amazon; Volumes I and II also on Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes & Noble and other stores via StreetLib distribution. Editions in Italian, English and French. Volume I is also available as an audiobook on Google Play and StreetLib.

Contact

Email: dualpen.books@hotmail.com

Publisher: Aurea Scripta Editions