In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Europe still held intact its gift for understanding ancestral images and symbols. Its people knew how and when to interpret the design on a column, a partic-ular figure in a painting or a simple sign on the road, even though only a minority had, in those days, learned to read and write.

With the arrival of the Age of Reason, the gift for interpreting such languages was lost, and with it, a good part of the richness be-queathed to us by our ancestors.

  This book makes use of many of those symbols as they were conceived once upon a time. But it also intends to restore to the modem reader the ability both to understand them and to benefit from their infinite wisdom.

In January of 1497, Father Agostino Leyre, a Dominican Inquisitor lind expert on the interpretation of secret messages, is ordered to supervise Leonardo da Vinci's final touches to The Last Supper. He was sent by Pope Alexander VI who had heard through anonymous letters that da Vinci was painting the twelve' apostles without their halo of sanctity, that the chalice was missing, and that Leonardo had painted himself in the picture with his back to Jesus. This could have sent him ,to the inquisition. Why did he do this? Was Leonardo da Vinci a heretic? Full of dark surprises, The Secret Supper depicts a deadly game of wits between the brilliant Leonardo cla Vinci and the Dominican Inquisitor intent upon bringing him to trial for heresy. Revealing the truth behind da Vinci's best-known Christian piece, it will keep you guessing until the final page. After finishing this novel, you'll never see The Last Supper in the same way again.