After being in Rome for close on two years, Leonardo finally received a summons from the Pope. It was delivered by a priest from the Vatican and bore a red Papal seal. Leonardo scrutinized the words: His Holiness Pope Alexander VI summons you to attend in person on the thirteenth of September. A day away, Leonardo felt a cold dread come over him, his hand trembled and the summons slipped from his fingers to the floor. Francesco picked it up and read it.
‘Perhaps he has learned of your work dissecting cadavers?’ said a worried Francesco.
‘If my studies of human anatomy have offended him, we would have heard long before now.’
The thirteenth of September was a day when Rome was clothed in an azure sky that graced its majestic buildings with the kiss of splendour. Yet as Leonardo walked the
