The rule of four
By: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason.
Contributors: Thomason, Dustin.
Publisher: Dial Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 372
Subjects: Colonna, Francesco, d. 1527 -- Fiction.; Young men -- Fiction.; Male friendship -- Fiction.; College students -- Fiction.; Fathers and sons -- Fiction.; Italian literature -- Appreciation -- Fiction.; Princeton (N.J.) -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Description: "Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets - to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline looms, research has stalled - until an ancient diary surfaces. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text." "Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia - a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department."--BOOK JACKET.