Used – Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants - Mathias Enard -Actes Sud

Author(s): Enard Mathias Publisher: Coédition Leméac/Actes Sud Publication: 08/18/2010 Number of pages: 153 Number of books: 1 Weight: 159 g Dimensions: 21.7 x 11.5 x 1.5 EAN: 9782742793624 Summary:

Arriving in Constantinople on May 13, 1506, Michelangelo knows that he is defying the power and anger of Julius II, a warrior pope and bad payer, whose tomb he left unfinished in Rome. But how could he not respond to the invitation of Sultan Bayezid, who proposed to him—after having rejected Leonardo da Vinci's plans—to design a bridge over the Golden Horn? Thus begins this novel, full of historical nuances, which seizes upon an accurate fact to unfold the mysteries of this journey. As captivating as the encounter of the Renaissance man with the beauties of the Ottoman world, precise and finely crafted like a piece of jewelry, this portrait of the artist at work is also a fascinating reflection on the act of creation and on the symbol of an unfinished gesture towards the other shore of civilization. For through the chronicle of these few weeks forgotten by History, Mathias Enard outlines a political geography whose hesitations are still as palpable five centuries later.