How do ordinary human beings become extraordinary in the memories of others? Helen teaches us that myth can preserve a name. Cleopatra teaches us that history can preserve a legacy. Simonetta teaches us that love, admiration, and art can preserve a soul. Months before I ever learned Simonetta Vespucci's name, I stood quietly inside the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, gazing at Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Like millions of visitors before me, I admired one of the most famous paint