Barbara Frale – författare

Dark secrets lie in the tunnels beneath... Paris, 1298. Disguised as an outlaw, a personage of the highest rank sneaks through the cellars of Notre Dame. The maze of secret tunnels hides a laboratory. Here, occult studies are conducted under the guidance of the renowned scientist, Arnaldo da Villanova. Studies which remain a secret. Rome, 1301. Denounced for impiety by mysterious informers in Paris, Villanova seeks refuge in Italy and becomes Pope Boniface VIII''s personal physician. Yet Villanova knows a secret, one capable of discrediting and overthrowing the French monarchy. He''s not safe. It''s clear someone wants to silence him forever. Will he pay the price for the secret he keeps with his life? Praise for Barbara Frale: ''An academic who has dedicated years of work to books on this topic... A pleasure to read'' UMBERTO ECO. ''A long-awaited historical thriller'' THE REPUBLIC. ''A brilliant writer'' IL GIORNALE.

An explosive new history of the medieval world's most powerful military order, the Templars, including a momentous discovery by author and Templar historian Barbara Frale that finally allows the full story to be told. Using sensational new information which she found almost by accident, Frale chronicles the Templars' spectacular rise and fall against a sweeping backdrop of war, religious fervour and a struggle for dominance and finally lifts the mystery surrounding one of the world's most intriguing societies. With a foreword by Umberto Eco.

The second book in a fascinating series by Vatican historian Barbara Frale. The Knights Templar - the most powerful religious-military order of the Middle Ages - almost certainly looked after a mysterious shroud that is now kept in Turin. Worshipped in a relentlessly secret manner and known in its intimate nature only by a handful of the order's officials, the swathe of fabric was kept in the central treasury of the Knights Templar. In an age of doctrinal confusion, the shroud might have represented a powerful antidote against the spread of heresy...