Salamandra 2005

While the crowds fill the streets of Rome celebrating the election of the new Pope Urban VIII, a young and daring English aristocrat arrives in the Eternal City.

Clarissa Whetenham, Lady McKinney, has traveled across Europe disguised as a boy until reaching the home of her cousin Olimpia, wife of Prince Pamphili. Very soon, Clarissa—nicknamed La Principessa—will become closely entwined with two young architects whose works will come to represent the most sublime expressions of the Italian Baroque.

Lorenzo Bernini is a brilliant man of worldly elegance and a favorite of the Popes, whose power of seduction does not leave Clarissa indifferent. Yet it is the solitary and tormented Francesco Borromini who awakens in her the deepest admiration, making her suffer the “sweet poison of beauty,” to the point of risking her life to help him bring his prodigious and daring creations to fruition.

The complex and passionate relationship among these three characters forms the guiding thread of this magnificent novel, rich in detail about Roman life at the time.

With admirable precision, Peter Prange immerses the reader in a fascinating journey through the conception and realization of some of the most formidable architectural masterpieces of all time.