Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's

Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's by R. A. Scotti

Despite a great deal of background on the history of the period, I think I failed to appreciate how much of the Reformation was driven by the cost overruns of a construction project...

The design, development and building of the Basilica of St. Peter must stand as one of the superlative achievements in the history of mankind. Begun in 1506 and completed in 1626, the Basilica reads like a "who's who" of Renaissance artistry and architecture including Bramante, Michelangelo, Bernini, and Raphael, among countless others.

Scotti's book is an engaging, deftly written page-turner that delves into both the technological and architectural challenges and into the characters and personalities of the architects, builders, artists and their Papal patrons that, over 120 years, created a sublime masterpiece.

I recommend the book and, if you have (as I have) never had the opportunity to visit in person, check out the terrific virtual tour online for a first-hand look. It is spectacular. 

All images used in this post are courtesy of the Vatican website (http://www.vatican.va).

Ironclad

I was wandering through the Met's extraordinary medieval art and armour collection, when I was genuinely startled to find myself confronted by Henry VIII's armour. 

Technically this was his field armour, probably less ornate than his wear for ceremonial purposes but, after studying the man and the era for the last six or seven years, it was startling to have a sudden intrusion of his actual armour into my day, particularly as I had no inkling it as part of the collection.  According to the Met, the armour dates to 1544 and was probably worn by Henry at the siege of Boulogne.  The first impression was that Henry must have been, true to his reputation and his portraits, a fairly stout individual.  The armour was 51 inches across the chest and 49 inches around the waist.  The suit resembles an ornate steel-clad gorilla and gives you a sense of the strength of the man.  It weighs more than fifty pounds, so I expect it was not worn lightly.

Henry was a man often unfairly castigated for certain actions and undeservedly praised for others.  Most famous for his succession of wives and mistresses, and for his role in the English Reformation, Henry was very much a man who believed in his own eminance and  God-given divine right to rule as King.  Self-doubt was never a very apparent weakness and Henry had, if anything, an utter belief in the rightness of his own positions, even when he hadn't clearly articulated them.  He was also an extravagent spend-thrift who took a fiscally sound kingdom under Henry VII and turned it into a nearly bankrupt state.  Henry's fiscal state was as much a driver of the English Reformation as was Henry's need for a divorce.

Still, the Met's Armory and Henry's pugnatious field armour are a fascinating and spectacular surprise.  I highly recommend taking a look.

GoT Syndrome

I think I'm suffering Game of Thrones withdrawal.

My Sunday nights are now empty (sorry HBO, True Blood just doesn't quite cut it), and I don't know if I can withstand at least another nine months of no Tyrion / Bronn quips.

Tyrion: Let's play a new game.
Bronn: There's a ... knife game I can teach ya.
Tyrion: Does it involve the potential loss of fingers?
Bronn: Not if you win.

Last year there was the solace of  George R.R. Martin coming out with A Dance of Dragons  to alleviate things but he is probably at least another two years away from his next book...and I've got nine months of no HBO Game of Thrones to endure.

Any recommendations?  Books, movies, games?

New York, NY

Over the great bridge, with sunlight through the girders making a
constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up
across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a

wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen for the first time,
in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had my first opportunity to visit New York last year. 

It seems strange, given its relative proximity, that I had never had the opportunity to go.

I've visited any number of major cities - San Francisco with the framing magnificance of the Golden Gate, the bustle of Fisherman's Wharf and the intricate warren of steep and twisted hill streets; Houston, ultra modern with steely glass petro towers, arctic air conditioning, and a startling mix of affluence lying next to trailerparks festooned with rusted, wheelless cars on cinderblocks; Tokyo, the city of villages with the needle-sharp Ginza, the chaotic buzz of Roppongi and the Blade Runner ambience of Shinjuku slick with neon in the rain.

All of them are great cities in their own way. 
New York has the feel of one of those "world" cities - a city that seems to capture all the granduer, variety, complexity, density and accretion that several centuries of occupation and life leaves in its path. 

The city is a strange mix of the familiar and the unknown.  Familiar, due in part its role as the setting for countless Law & Order episodes.  New York is that staple of television and movie copland - and so the place names roll off the tongue with maddening recognition, though their true geographic veracity lies only in the imagination and often vague generalities - Battery Park, Soho, the Brooklyn Bridge, mid-town, Times Square, Central Park, Harlem... Their true location is less than the perceived map of the imagination.

The reality is one that television and media  fails to capture a sense that can only be understood through visiting - an appreciation for the sheer hubris and scale of the place.  You need to experience it, you need to see it stretch out at your feet into the humid, thick June air from the deck of the Empire State Building.  Manhatten fades into the distance in two directions, relentless in a long and langourous stretch of pavement, steel, ambition and concrete piled high upon itself, a canyonland of skyscrapers, windows, fire-escapes, water towers and rooftops, the fine details visible only through a .50 cent telescope, relentless and geometric, tidy only at a distance.

So this was New York.

Welcome to Tyburn Tree

Welcome to Tyburn Tree!  Formerly this was Booklinker, my book review site now converted over into my online home, so if by chance you've wandered over from Booklinker, welcome to the new digs.

You may have noted that for the last five years there has been, well, a paucity of posts.  This is primarily due to switching my writing efforts from online over to working on my book.  As noted in the earlier posts, the book is now done and the long journey towards publication has begun.

A Prologue...

Well, I've added the Prologue to the excerpt of The Jesuit Letter...Enjoy!

An Update!

Well it has been a somewhat lengthy time since I last updated the site.

The delay was not without reason.

Late in 2006, I moved book reviews off of my priority list, for purely selfish motives.  At that time I started working on my own writing project.  With only a limited amount of spare time each week to spend on my writing, I elected to focus on my personal project and see where it took me.

Now five long years later, I have a completed manuscript piled in front of me.  The book is The Jesuit Letter.  It is historical fiction, approximately 112,000+ words and set in 1575 in Elizabethan England. 

The story tells the tale of ex-soldier-turned-player Christopher Tyburn, who finds himself entangled in a murderous conspiracy when he intercepts a coded letter from a hidden Jesuit priest in Warwickshire. 

I have posted the first two chapters as excerpts on the sidebar, so feel free to click through and have a read.  As per the message on the sidebar, I am currently seeking agent representation with an aim for eventual publication.

Making this excerpt available online is a bit of an experiment, a “message in a bottle” cast into the ocean to see what happens.

If you do happen to be a reputable literary agent, or know of one that you can recommend or introduce to my work, please feel free to do so via email.

Thank you for visiting and please let me know if you enjoy the excerpt!