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Authors: Giulio Leoni
The Kingdom of Light (38 page)
Leonardo Fibonacci (c.1170–1250) – Italian mathematician also known as Leonardo of Pisa, renowned for spreading the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe
(as
described in his
Book of Calculation
) and for the number sequence named after him, in which after 0 and 1 each subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers
Frederick the Second (1194–1250) – Holy Roman Emperor 1220–50; Italian pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed monarch of Italy from 1215; he was known as
Stupor mundi
(‘the wonder of the world’) for his wide learning and was one of the foremost Christian monarchs in Europe during the Middle Ages, but his dynasty lost its influence after the death of his son Conrad in 1254, although there were continuing rumours of the attempted advent to the throne of another son
Giano della Bella – a wealthy, aristocratic Guelph politician who became the leader of a popular Florentine revolt against the magnates during the 1290s; having aroused the hostility of the guilds and the grandees, he was forced into exile
Guelphs and Ghibellines – rival factions in thirteenth-century Italy, supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor respectively; the Guelphs (to whom Dante belonged) comprised middle-class merchants, shopkeepers and traders, while the Ghibellines consisted of
an
alliance of leading merchants and the feudal nobility. In 1300, after their victory at Campaldino (see above), the Florentine Guelphs themselves split into two factions: the Whites and the Blacks (see Cerchi and Donati above)
guild – a professional and trade association in medieval Europe; there were seven ‘great guilds’, fourteen ‘lesser guilds’ (craft guilds) and seven liberal arts guilds in Florence, setting the standards for the occupation in question and granting privileges and protection to their members; in the novel the Builders’ Guild is specifically mentioned
Inquisition – a series of Roman Catholic bodies charged with suppressing heresy throughout Europe from about 1184; they were a response to the threat presented by large popular movements such as those of the Cathars and Waldensians in France and northern Italy, which were viewed as heretical by the Catholic Church
Jubilee – on 22nd February, 1300 Boniface VIII convoked a holy year of ‘great remissions and indulgences for sins’ for those who visited the basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome and confessed their sins; this started a tradition in the Catholic Church that continued every twenty-five or fifty years; Dante is reputed by some to have visited Rome in 1300 for this purpose
Kitab al-Mi’raj
– The Book of Ascension, a Muslim book written in Arabic about the ascension of Mohammed into the heavens, after his one-night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem; it was translated into Latin in the mid-thirteenth century as the
Liber scalae Machometi
and is believed by some scholars to have influenced Dante’s
Divine Comedy
Monna Lagia – the brothel-keeper in the novel is possibly named after the Monna Lagia who had a relationship with the poet Lapo Gianna and who is mentioned in poems by Dante and Cavalcanti
Bianca Lancia – an Italian noblewoman whose full name was Bianca Lancia d’Algiano, she became mistress and (reputedly on her deathbed) wife of Emperor Frederick II; her last son was thought by some to be the ‘lost’ heir to Frederick
Liber scalae Machometi
– see
Kitab al-Mi’raj
above
Mainardino da Imola – Bishop loyal to the Emperor Frederick, and author of the
Chronicles
Oltrarno – a central district of Florence located south of the River Arno (from the Italian meaning ‘beyond the Arno’) and containing many of its historic buildings
Pietra – in 1296 Dante composed a series of verses to one Donna Pietra, who was possibly named for her stony indifference to him (
pietra
being Italian for ‘stone’); it may have been a reference to Pietra degli Scrovigni, daughter of a Paduan money-lender assigned to the circle of usurers in Dante’s
Inferno
prior – the Florence in which Dante lived was a republic, governed by an elected Council of Priors, comprising six members, based on the previous Priors of the Guilds; in the novel Dante’s term as prior is due to end shortly
Michael Scotus (c.1175–1234) – one of the foremost philosophers, mathematicians and scholars of the thirteenth century, who rose to prominence as an astrologer at the court of Frederick II and translated some of the Arabic works of Averroes and Avicenna; he featured among the magicians in Dante’s
Inferno
and in the work of Boccaccio and Sir Walter Scott
La Serenissima
– the Republic of Venice, from its title in Venetian: ‘the Most Serene Republic’
tokamak
– a device for creating controlled thermonuclear fusion energy, invented by Soviet physicists during the 1950s
The Virgin of Antioch – also known as Saint Margaret and Margaret of Antioch; she was scorned by her father for her Christian faith, tortured when she refused to renounce it and, after various miraculous incidents, put to death in
AD
304
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781409087601
Published by Vintage 2010
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Copyright © Giulio Leoni 2005
English translation copyright © Shaun Whiteside 2009
Giulio Leoni has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
First published in Italy as
I Delitti Della Luce
in 2005 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A, Milano. This edition published by arrangement with Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Harvill Secker
Vintage
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099516460