Joscelyn Godwin

You've read "The Rule of Four", now read about its source..."The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason is a runaway international bestseller, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. But the foundation of "The Rule of Four", as all its readers know, is a little-known text from the fifteenth century, the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili". Lurid, dreamlike, extremely erotic and written in many different languages and codes, the exact meaning of the Hypnerotomachia has eluded scholars for centuries. Now, in this indispensable, concise and thoroughly entertaining book, Professor Joscelyn Godwin, the translator of the first complete English edition of the Hypnerotomachia, guides the reader through its labyrinthine pages and unlocks the secrets and mysteries within Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's novel. He brings to life the worlds of both the Renaissance reader and the young Princeton undergraduate, setting both in the context of their time and place. Erudite and engaging, "The Real Rule of Four" is the perfect companion piece to "The Rule of Four". ""The Da Vinci Code" for people with brains" - "Independent".

Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) was acknowledged to be the most learned man of his age. By profession a Jesuit priest, he made himself an authority on every subject under (and above) the sun and published the results of his researches in over thirty lavishly illustrated volumes in Latin. His museum in Rome was famous and visited by everybody in the world of learning. Inevitably, his work has been superseded in most areas of study, but he remains a key figure in the history of ideas and in recent years there has been a revival of interest, in which Joscelyn Godwin has played a leading role. But while every other aspect of his thought has been studied, the fascinating engravings with which he illustrated his ideas have been largely ignored. This book fills that gap. It is divided into 15 chapters grouped by the engravings subject; these illustrations reveal his singular mind and the way he was drawn to mysticism and magic.