Title rated 3.55 out of 5 stars, based on 7 ratings(7 ratings)
Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , Available .
Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , Available . Offered in 0 more formats
A brilliant novel packed with delights: grand romance, alchemical potions, violins to make you weep, commedia dell' arte theatre, reappearing comets, rambling skeletons and cracks in time. It is 1682 in Cremona, Italy. With his manservant, an insolent dwarf named Omero, Fabrizio Cambiati, a priest, climbs the town clocktower to await the return of a comet that is said to reappear in the skies every 76 years. He has a new invention called a telescope with which to scour the night. As they await the comet, he scopes the town below and sees the commedia dell' arte players setting up in the town square and a Jesuit arriving in a carriage. We later learn that the Jesuit is Michele Archenti, a Devil' s Advocate sent from Rome to investigate the candidacy for sainthood of this same Fabrizio Cambiati - 76 years later The novel then begins again, this time in 1758 when Archenti settles himself in the town to assume his investigations.
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