Ross King

Una apasionante novela de intriga ambientada en el s.XVII. La siniestra Lady Marchamont encarga a un vendedor de libros la búsqueda de un texto desaparecido. El librero se verá sumergido en un mundo de espías, códigos cifrados y falsificaciones...

Este libro relata la extraordinaria historia de cómo se construyó, desde su concepción hasta su consagración. ¿Cómo realizaban los albañiles su tarea diaria, suspendidos a decenas de metros del suelo? ¿Por que se usaron nabos para tallar los modelos para los sillares de piedra? ¿Que paso para que se utilizaran las lapidas de las sepulturas?¿ Que papel tuvo la cupula en el descubrimiento del Nuevo Mundo?.

In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel. With little experience as a painter (though famed for his sculpture David), Michelangelo was reluctant to begin the massive project. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling recounts the four extraordinary years Michelangelo spent laboring over the vast ceiling while the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him. Battling against ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems, the pope's impatience, and a bitter rivalry with the brilliant young painter Raphael, Michelangelo created scenes so beautiful that they are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. A panorama of illustrious figures converged around the creation of this great work-from the great Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus to the young Martin Luther-and Ross King skillfully weaves them through his compelling historical narrative, offering uncommon insight into the intersection of art and history.

"There is no other work to compare with this for excellence, nor could there be," wrote Vasari in his Lives of Artists. The extraordinary story behind Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel - from the author of the acclaimed Brunelleschi's Dome. In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Though he considered himself primarily a sculptor not a painter, he laboured over it for the next four years and the result was one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. Ross King's fascinating new book tells the story of those four extraordinary years. Battling against ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems and inadequate knowledge of the art of fresco, Michelangelo created figures so beautiful that, when they were unveiled in 1512, they stunned the onlookers. From Michelangelo's experiments with the composition of pigment and plaster to his bitter rivalry with Raphael, who was working on the neighbouring Papal Apartments, Ross King paints a magnificent picture of day-to-day life on the Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early sixteenth-century Rome. From the Hardcover edition.

Londres, 1660. La siniestra Lady Marchamont encarga a un vendedor de libros, Isaac Inchbold, la búsqueda de un texto hermético titulado El laberinto del mundo, desaparecido de la inmensa biblioteca de su padre durante los saqueos de la guerra civil. La unica pista de que dispone el desconcertado librero es un ex libris, propiedad del difunto dueño de la biblioteca, Sir Ambrose de Pennington, coleccionista de ejemplares de todas las cortes europeas.Su suerte y su fortuna dependen del exito de su mision, pero pronto descubrira que no es el unico que busca el escurridizo volumen. Isaac Inchbold va a encontrarse inesperadamente sumergido en un mundo de espias, contrabandistas, codigos cifrados y falsificaciones, convertido en involuntario participante de un juego mortal.A partir de tramas paralelas solidamente construidas, Ross King recorre la convulsa y apasionante Europa del siglo XVII, testigo de constantes enfrentamientos entre catolicos y protestantes, del estallido de la Guerra de los Treinta Años o de cruciales descubrimientos en materia de astronomia y cartografia Como Umberto Eco o Arturo Perez-Reverte, King mantiene una sorprendente tension narrativa haciendo gala de una documentacion y ambientacion impecables.

A través de palacios, teatros de ópera y bailes de máscaras en Londres y Venecia, Dominó construye una compleja historia entrelazada de traiciones, engaños y seducciones, en la que nada ni nadie son

En Londres, en 1812, el artista George Cautley se encuentra en un baile de máscaras cuando deja caer el retrato de una dama bellísima en miniatura a los pies de un joven galán. Éste, prendado instantaneamente de la dama, le ruega al viejo Cautley, quien oculta su rostro tras la mascara de un domino, que le revele la identidad de aquella belleza seductora. Cautley le narra entonces la triste historia del castrato Tristano y de la señora Beauclair, a quienes conocio en 1770, cuando era un pintor joven que acababa de llegar a Londres en pos del exito y la fama. A traves de palacios, teatros de opera y bailes de mascaras en Londres y Venecia, Domino construye una compleja historia entrelazada de traiciones, engaños, enemistades y seducciones en la que, tras las superficies elegantemente pintadas de los cuadros o las mascaras de raso, nada ni nadie son lo que parecen.Domino es una historia detectivesca sin detective. Mientras el narrador se halla confusamente incitado por la atmosfera de intriga y perversion, es incapaz de atravesar las nieblas y disfraces que le rodean, misterios que al lector le parece verosimil interpretar como crimenes que requieren una investigacion La experiencia de leer Domino es a menudo como quedar atrapado en un grabado en trompe-l''oeil (Judith Hawley, The Times Literary Supplement). La inventiva bizantina del autor y su escritura tensa y rica convierten Domino en una experiencia de lectura tan apasionante como inolvidable.

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La búsqueda de un ex libris se convierte en una aventura inigualable llena de códigos cifrados y grandes enigmas.

Kings supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past. The scope of his knowledge is staggering JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMESFrom Michelangelo to Mussolini, Nero to Meloni, Galileo to Garibaldi, here is the sparkling story of the worlds most influential peninsula.The calendar, the university, the piano; the Vespa, the pistol and the pizzeria It is easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from somewhere sure of its place in the world. Yet these pages reveal a land rife with uncertainty even as its influence spread.From the rise of the Roman Republic to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, from the glories of Renaissance Florence to the long struggle for unification, from Europes first operas to the worlds first ghettos, Ross King nimbly charts the checkered course of Italian history. In the last hundred years, film, fashion and Fiat once bigger than Volkswagen have emerged from the horrors of fascism and world war.The Shortest History of Italy is a majestic sweep across three millennia of history that not only shaped Europe but the wider world.

Compelling... fascinatingSpectatorAbounding with excellent little storiesFinancial TimesThis is the story of one of the most magnificent achievements of the Italian Renaissance, and the architect behind it.Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed it was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world.This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the domes architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, he was celebrated at their end as a great genius. His life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue - a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.VOTED NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE AMERICAN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS

By the author of the acclaimed Brunelleschis Dome.After meeting the mysterious and beautiful Lady Beauclair at a society ball, George Cautley, a hapless young artist adrift in the gilded world of 1770s London, paints her portrait. She, in turn, tells him the scandalous story of Tristano, a castrato singer in Handels opera company fifty years before. But Cautley also meets the eminent painter Sir Endymion Starker that same evening and his mistress, Eleanora, who has another tragic tale to tell, one that will have George unwittingly re-enacting the fate of Tristano...

A marvel of storytelling and a masterclass in the history of the bookWALL STREET JOURNALThe Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the dazzling handiwork of the citys artists and architects. But equally important were geniuses of another kind: Florences manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars and booksellers. At a time where all books were made by hand, these people helped imagine a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity was a remarkable bookseller: Vespasiano da Bisticci. His books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. With a client list that included popes and royalty, Vespasiano became the king of the worlds booksellers. But by 1480 a new invention had appeared: the printed book, and Europes most prolific merchant of knowledge faced a formidable new challenge.A spectacular life of the book trades Renaissance man JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES

Kings supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past. The scope of his knowledge is staggering JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMESAt its largest extent, the Roman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Irish Sea, from North Africa to central Europe. A fifth of the worlds population were Romancitizens. Even after the empires dramatic decline and fall, its legacy continued to shape politics and laws, language and numerals, calendars and architecture.But what was Rome, who were the Romans, how did they achieve such domination and why did their mighty empire fall?Ross Kings cast of characters includes murderous emperors, rebellious women, remarkable thinkers, fugitive slaves and persecuted Christians.From the foundation myths of Romulus and Remus to the barbarian invasions, this is an unputdownable account of one of the greatest empires the world has seen.

Responding to a cryptic summons to a remote country house, London bookseller Isaac Inchbold finds himself responsible for restoring a magnificent library pillaged during the English Civil War, and in the process slipping from the surface of 1660s London into an underworld of spies and smugglers, ciphers and forgeries. As he assembles the fragments of a complex historical mystery, Inchbold learns how Sir Ambrose Plessington, founder of the library, escaped from Bohemia on the eve of the Thirty Years War with plunder from the Imperial Library. Inchbolds hunt for one of these stolen volumes - a lost Hermetic text - soon casts him into an elaborate intrigue; his fortunes hang on the discovery of the missing manuscript but his search reveals that the elusive volume is not what it seems and that he has been made an unwitting player in a treacherous game.

Códigos cifrados y falsificaciones se dan cita en esta apasionante novela ambientada en el siglo XVIILa siniestra lady Marchamont encarga a un vendedor de libros la búsqueda de un texto desaparecido de la biblioteca de su padre durante la guerra civil. La unica pista de que dispone el desconcertado librero es un ex libris.