From the bulb of a rare flower blooms ambition and scandal Rome 1635. As Flanders braces for another long year of war, a Spanish count presents the Vatican with a means of disrupting the Dutch rebels' booming economy. His plan is brilliant. They just need the right man to implement it. Enter Ludovico da Portovenere, a charismatic spice and silk merchant. Intrigued by the Vatican's proposal-and hungry for profit-Ludo sets off for Amsterdam. His voyage is interrupted, first by a timid English priest with a message from Rome, then by a storm, then by a pirate raid. The storm brings him a...
From the bulb of a rare flower blooms ambition and scandal Rome 1635. As Flanders braces for another long year of war, a Spanish count presents the Va...
