An archetypal Dedalus novel which bears comparison with David Madsen's Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf. Rome, 10th February 1600. In seven days' time, the poet-philosopher Giordano Bruno will burn at the stake, condemned by the Inquisition for his 'heretical' beliefs. Defiant to the last, he refuses to recant and spends his remaining days writing the story of his own turbulent life. Pugnacious and earthy Bruno has incurred the enmity of corrupt, bigoted churchmen and academics, and been force to travel the length and breadth of Europe, battling to teach and publish his beliefs: that the universe is infinite and in perpetual motion, that God is not outside the world but everywhere in Nature, and that men should be free to think as they choose. Bruno's charisma and talent have won him many friends and admirers in high places: Henri 111 of France, Montaigne, Philip Sydney, Arcimboldo, and a brilliant, seductive young actor called Snitterfield, soon to become famous and change his name to Shakespeare; and the handsome, elegant Cecil, Bruno's greatest love and inspiration.
