"The Montefeltro Conspiracy" arrives...

A copy of Marcello Simonetta's new book "The Montefeltro Conspiracy" (2008) has just arrived in the post (I first mentioned it here). I must admit to being a bit excited, as he covers a lot of ground I'd had to wade slowly through in the Italian sources when writing my own book - Cicco Simonetta, Francesco Sforza, the death of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Italian cryptography - as well as the fascinating web of intrigue and treachery threaded through so many of the condottieri and(mainly Florentine) princes which forms the book's focus.

Really, it's the kind of book I aspired to in "The Curse": a historical account of the politics of cryptography (though the cryptography aspect here is fairly light by comparison). And, quite unexpectedly, Marcello cites my book (though admittedly only in the endnote to p.24 - but hey, it's in the bibliography too, every little citation helps).

Even at a glance, it's obvious that his book is well illustrated, with even some nice pictures of the Urbino intarsia I mentioned here only a few days ago. But I'm getting way ahead of myself now: I have to go away and read it ASAP so that I can post a proper review here...