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About In Pursuit of the Green Lion In Pursuit of the Green Lion draws on medieval pilgrimage documents to portray the sights and risks of travel in an age when bandits, soldiers, and beggars thronged the roads. Margaret travels by stages to the Pyrenees, then to the Avignon of the medieval popes and returns via Burgundy, sustained only by her indomitable will, sly good humor, and a sense that no matter what, God will never abandon her. |
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About The Water-Devil Child betrothals and marriages were a way of securing estates and family alliances in the middle ages.. The rights to assign the marriages of young heiresses (for a hefty fee) were hotly fought over in the court cases of the time. The spring and its ancient being are modeled on pre-Christian folkloric traditions in Great Britain, where waterways, wells, and springs were inhabited by supernatural beings who required offerings and the occasional human sacrifice. With the conversion of Europe, the church transformed these into Christian sites, although strange pagan customs, such as throwing money into wishing wells, remain to this day. |
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About The Master of All Desires The historical record has preserved for us the letters of Catherine de Medici, various published works of Nostradamus and of his son, and contemporary accounts of the life and times in and around the renaissance court of King Henry II and his Medici queen. The record shows us, too, that Nostradamus was far more than the author of the mysterious Centuries. His letters and other works reveal a medical man with a testy temper, investigative mind, and a clear eye for the pursuit of popular approval. Who better to stop the machinations of a queen fond of black magic and her sorcerer-in-chief, Cosmo Ruggieri?
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About The Serpent Garden Little is known about the origins of the art of the English miniature, save that women, usually in the families of emigré Flemish painters, were involved. We have little to inform us beside a few payment records, the mute testimony of the paintings themselves, and the artistic instructions of some of the great contemporary painters, most notably Nicholas Hillyarde's Art of Limning. The paintings were done with a kind of watercolor on a pre-painted midtone parchment base, the striking colors being protected for a half millennium by the custom of keeping them in closed cases, even when they were worn as ornaments..
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About The Oracle Glass The Oracle Glass is drawn from the official police records of the inquiry into one of France's great scandals, the Affair of the Poisons, and deals with what little is factually known about the life of the fascinating and fearful La Voisin. Possessed of a brilliant business mind before her time, this self-styled sorceress organized illegal and underground arts into an extensive business that could rival the most cold-blooded modern enterprise.
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