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Baudolino
The most playful of historical novelists, Umberto Eco has absorbed the real lesson of history: that there is no such thing as the absolute truth. In Baudolino, he hands his narrative to an Italian peasant who has managed, through good luck and a clever tongue, to become the adopted son of the Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, and a minister of his court in the closing years of the 12th century. Baudolino's other gift is for spontaneous but convincing lies, and so his unfolding tale--as recounted in 1204 to a nobleman of Constantinople, while the fires of the Fourth Crusade rage around them--exemplifies the Cretan Liar's Paradox: He can't be believed. Why not, then, make his story as outrageous as possible? In the course of his picaresque tale, Baudolino manages to touch on nearly every major theme, conflict, and boondoggle of the Middle Ages: the Crusades; the troubadours; the legend of the Holy Grail; the rise of the cathedral cities; the position of Jews; the market in relics; the local rivalries that made Italy so vulnerable to outside attack; and the perennial power struggles between the pope and the emperor. With the help of alcohol and a mysterious Moorish concoction called "green honey," Baudolino and his ragtag friends engage in typical scholastic debates of the period, trying to determine the dimensions of Solomon's Temple and the location of the Earthly Paradise. And when the Emperor needs support in his claims for saintly lineage, who but Baudolino can craft the perfect letter of homage from the legendary Prester John, Holy (and wholly fictitious) Christian King of the East? A giddy and exasperating romp, Baudolino will draw you into its labyrinthine inventions and half-truths, even if you know better. --Regina Marler.
Price: $0.49
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MGA 4: The Travels of Marco Polo (MyEclectica.com Great Adventures)
The Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English title of Marco Polo's travel book, nicknamed Il Milione (The Million - as in a million lies) or Le Livre des Merveilles (The Book of Wonders). It was a very famous book in the 13th century which talked about Marco Polo's travels to the court of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan. Scholars debate how much of the account is accurate and whether or not Marco Polo ever actually traveled to the court or was just repeating stories that he had heard from other travelers. The book was actually written by a romance author of the time, Rustichello da Pisa, who was reportedly working from accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo while in prison. This is the first of two volumes published in 1903..
Price: $1.00
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The Prester Quest
In 1177, Pope Alexander III wrote a letter to the elusive King of the Indies, otherwise known as Prester John. The person who was selected and set out to deliver this letter into the hand of Prester John was never heard of again. 824 years later, armed with a copy of Pope Alexander's letter, Nick Jubber set out from Venice with the intention of somewhat belatedly completing Master Philip's mission. Over the next four months he would travel by bus, train, tractor, and horse-drawn cart around the Eastern Mediterranean, through the Middle East and North Africa before homing in on Ethiopia and the closely-guarded tomb of a medieval king who legend links with the mythical, mystical figure of Prester John. .
Price: $8.79
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