num_pages: 151
description: In 1506 Michelangelo  a young but already renowned sculptor  is invited by the sultan of Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The sultan has offered alongside an enormous payment the promise of immortality since Leonardo da Vincis design was rejected: You will surpass him in glory if you accept for you will succeed where he has failed and you will give the world a monument without equal. Michelangelo after some hesitation flees Rome and an irritated Pope Julius II  whose commission he leaves unfinished  and arrives in Constantinople for this truly epic project. Once there he explores the beauty and wonder of the Ottoman Empire sketching and describing his impressions along the way and becomes immersed in cloak-and-dagger palace intrigues as he struggles to create what could be his greatest architectural master-work. Constructed from real historical fragments Tell Them of Battles Kings and Elephants is a thrilling novella about why stories are told why bridges are built and how seemingly unmatched pieces seen from the opposite sides of civilization can mirror one another.
language: English
title: Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants
publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions