The Real Rule of Four

Description

The Unauthorised Guide to the Sunday Times Bestseller: 'This year's publishing sensation' - Guardian 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.

Jocelyn Godwin was a scholar of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University. Since 1971 he had taught at Colgate University where he is Professor of Music. In 1999 Godwin published the first complete English translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which was called 'a masterpiece of clarity and scholarship' by the Daily Telegraph.