The Pope's Rhinoceros“The acclaimed author of Lemprière’s Dictionary furnishes another richly textured romp steeped in history, legend, and excitement.” —Booklist The Pope’s Rhinoceros is a vivid, antic, and picaresque novel spun around one of history’s most bizarre chapters: the sixteenth-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros as a bribe for Pope Leo X. In February 1516, a Portuguese ship sank off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora de Ajuda had sailed fourteen thousand miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to bribe the “pleasure-loving Pope” into favoring expansionist Portugal over her rival Spain with the most exotic and least likely of gifts — a living rhinoceros. Moving from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to the West African rain forest, with a cast of characters including an order of reclusive monks and Rome’s corrupt cardinals, courtesans, ambassadors, and nobles, The Pope’s Rhinoceros is at once a fantastic adventure tale and a portrait of an age rushing headlong to its crisis. “An exhausting banquet of a book . . . One of the most original, energetic, and ambitious novels of recent years.” —Kirkus Reviews “Mr. Norfolk’s heady originality and intellectual energy are apparent on every page.” —The New York Times Book Review |
From inside the book
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... waves, and tastes the ocean's unfamiliar salt for the first time. An hour old and raw from the breach, it is the youngest sea on earth. The thousand-mile ridge of rock that bars the northern gulfs from the ocean collects snow all ...
... waves, and tastes the ocean's unfamiliar salt for the first time. An hour old and raw from the breach, it is the youngest sea on earth. The thousand-mile ridge of rock that bars the northern gulfs from the ocean collects snow all ...
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... existences floated, swam, spawned, and died before the first keel cut the waves above and the nets descended to haul the sea's fat harvest ashore. Invasions, battles, and slaughter were a vague clangor, dim thuds in the deathly air;
... existences floated, swam, spawned, and died before the first keel cut the waves above and the nets descended to haul the sea's fat harvest ashore. Invasions, battles, and slaughter were a vague clangor, dim thuds in the deathly air;
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... waves clawed this gift for them from the land. The thrashing surface-creatures above were yielding up a surpassing tribute to the waiting shoals, greater and more intricate, different in kind as well as scale, and more enduring. The ...
... waves clawed this gift for them from the land. The thrashing surface-creatures above were yielding up a surpassing tribute to the waiting shoals, greater and more intricate, different in kind as well as scale, and more enduring. The ...
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... wave , and the barrel rocked alarmingly . The ballast - rock would cure that . Bernardo waved back , a great extravagant wave , which was actually Bernardo losing his grip , falling , and releasing the pole , which reared up at one end ...
... wave , and the barrel rocked alarmingly . The ballast - rock would cure that . Bernardo waved back , a great extravagant wave , which was actually Bernardo losing his grip , falling , and releasing the pole , which reared up at one end ...
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... waves had advanced on the near inlet throughout the past weeks ' effort , seeming sometimes to beckon him on and sometimes to warn him off . The day after tomorrow Ewald had agreed to lend them the boat . He shifted irritably on the ...
... waves had advanced on the near inlet throughout the past weeks ' effort , seeming sometimes to beckon him on and sometimes to warn him off . The day after tomorrow Ewald had agreed to lend them the boat . He shifted irritably on the ...
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Common terms and phrases
Ajuda already Amalia amongst asked Ayamonte barrel beast began beneath Bernardo Bibbiena boat Brother Captain Alfredo Cardinal chapter-house church Cippi coast Colonna courtyard crowd dark dead deck Diego disappeared Don Antonio Don Jerònimo door Dovizio drifted ears Estêvão Ewald eyes face Father Jörg feet fell Fernando the Catholic fish floor forecastle forest forward Francisco Gerhardt Ghiberti going Gonçalo Groot hand Hanno HansJürgen head heard Holiness horse Iguedo Ijaw island Jacopo knew laughing legs looked Lucullo monks mouth moved Namoke night Niklot nodded Oçem Onitsha Ostia perhaps Pierino pirogues poop deck Pope Prato pulled Ravenna reached river Rome rope Rufo sails Salvestro seemed Seròn ship shouting side silence soldiers sound splosh standing stared stone stood stopped Teixeira tell thought thurible told turned Usedom Usse Vich Vineta voice waiting walked wall watched waves White-men