Severny Vestnik
Merezhkovsky started working upon the second novel right after the first one, "The Death of Gods", was finished, submerging himself in studying the history of Renaissance. By this time he had the vision of the trilogy as a whole. In 1896 with Zinaida Gippius (and accompanied by "Severny Vestnik" editor Akim Volynsky) he made a journey to Europe visiting places where Leonardo da Vinci had stayed while accompanying Francis I of France.