The Pope's Rhinoceros

Fülszöveg

i 1,1 February I5I6, a Portuguese ship sank
I with tlie loss of all hands a mile off the coast
^ of Italy. The Nossa Senhora da Ajuda bad
sailed 14,000 miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to deliver a i rhinoceros to the Pope.
( The Pope's Rhinoceros tells the stories that
culminate in this bizarre incident. Salvestro, an ex-mercenary fleeing from the wars raging ; south of the Alps, is the hero of the tale. He
has returned to his birthplace on the Baltic island of Usedoin, where a sect of secretive J monks are planning their first pilgrimage in
V 200 years. Their journey will take themselves
I and Salvestro back across the Alps to Rome,
i where Leo X, the 'pleasure-loving Pope', holds
I court. Here the Kingdoms of Spain and
f Portugal compete for His Holiness's favours
j as he divides up the New World between
i them. A rhinoceros, unseen in Europe since
I antiquity, seems the perfect bribe to secure
i this whimsical Pope's approval. But where is... Tovább

Fülszöveg

i 1,1 February I5I6, a Portuguese ship sank
I with tlie loss of all hands a mile off the coast
^ of Italy. The Nossa Senhora da Ajuda bad
sailed 14,000 miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to deliver a i rhinoceros to the Pope.
( The Pope's Rhinoceros tells the stories that
culminate in this bizarre incident. Salvestro, an ex-mercenary fleeing from the wars raging ; south of the Alps, is the hero of the tale. He
has returned to his birthplace on the Baltic island of Usedoin, where a sect of secretive J monks are planning their first pilgrimage in
V 200 years. Their journey will take themselves
I and Salvestro back across the Alps to Rome,
i where Leo X, the 'pleasure-loving Pope', holds
I court. Here the Kingdoms of Spain and
f Portugal compete for His Holiness's favours
j as he divides up the New World between
i them. A rhinoceros, unseen in Europe since
I antiquity, seems the perfect bribe to secure
i this whimsical Pope's approval. But where is
I this near-mythical beast to be found?
Ranging from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to a fly-blown port in India, from a tribe hidden in the West African rain forest to the atrocities committed in an obscure town in Tuscany, Lawrence Norfolk's second novel holds up the true history of the rhinoceros as a mirror to the fantasies and obsessions of the Renaissance. Why did Albrecht Dürer add a fictitious second horn to the rhinoceros in his woodcut of I5I5? How did an anal fistula enable Giovanni di Medici to become Pope Leo X? The quest draws in Salvestro, the reclusive monks, Rome's corrupt cardinals and courtesans, her duelling ambassadors and decaying nobility, and the ancient peoples of Europe, Africa and the Indies. All are blind to their different fates, and all their fates are bound to the rhinoceros. Set on the brink of the Reformation, The Pope's Rhinoceros is a parable of an age rushing to its crisis.
r.is.ior L C iv^ pn ére's Dictionary
\\'inr]C!' oi riiC I9')2 Somerset Maugham Award
'Poised, superbly inventive and gripping. With Lempriere's Dictionary the precocious author has catapulted himself into the premier league of English fiction writmg' Observer
'An extraordinary achievement at once a quest, a tragedy, a political thriller and a cultural meditation. It is a remarkable book'
The Times Literary Supplement •
'This is historical fiction of mesmerising complexity a masterpiece'
Daily Mail t
'Astonishingly assured an engrossing and wonderfully intricate ^ ' extravaganza' . '
London Review of Books
'A love story, and a story of fantastic adventure, it is also a hugely comic , novel immense verve and brilliance' ^
Sunday Times
'Brilliantly inventive and hugely enjoyable' ^^
Spectator Vissza