I’ve taken the liberty of including three actual restaurants in the Roman ghetto in these pages – Sora Margherita, Al Pompiere and Da Baffetto – for no other reason than personal pleasure. They are among my favourites in the city. The story of St Peter and his conflict with the magician Simon Magus is, as the narrative says, taken from the apocryphal Acts of Peter. The church of Santa Francesca Romana is real, and a delightful diversion near the Roman Forum. The supposed marks left by Peter’s knees when he brought the magician crashing to earth can be found in the wall at the right of the nave, protected by an iron grating.
Galileo’s murmured words to the Inquisition – ‘and yet it moves’ – are equally apocryphal, though believed by many. The Brotherhood of the Owls and the Palazzetto Santacroce are entirely fictional and bear no relation to the real-life Accademia dei Lincei – the Academy of the Lynx-Eyed – which was formed to support Galileo’s pursuit of science in 1603. The organization was suppressed by Mussolini but resurrected after the Second World War and now proudly styles itself as the oldest scientific organization in the world.
David Hewson
Also by David Hewson
Nic Costa series
A SEASON FOR THE DEAD
THE VILLA OF MYSTERIES
THE SACRED CUT
THE LIZARD’S BITE
THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT
THE GARDEN OF EVIL
DANTE’S NUMBERS
THE BLUE DEMON
Other titles
THE PROMISED LAND
THE CEMETERY OF SECRETS
(previously published as Lucifer’s Shadow)
DEATH IN SEVILLE
(previously published as Semana Santa)
This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan
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Copyright © David Hewson 2011
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