Ross King is a renowned expert in the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of numerous bestselling and acclaimed books include Brunelleschi’s Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper and Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. His love of Renaissance Florence, which he has been studying, writing and lecturing about for over twenty years, made Vespasiano’s long-forgotten story – never written about before – an irresistible next subject. He lives just outside Oxford.

"Ross King deftly stitches modern Michelangelo scholarship into his fluent and gripping narrative. The result is a delightful book that overturns many legends" Independent "A fascinating and carefully researched account of day-to-day life atop the Sistine scaffolding" The Times "A narrative that never falls back on exaggeration or deviates from the facts" Sunday Times "We learn an enormous amount by reading this book; King's grasp of and research into the period seem all-encompassing" Spectator