This lavishly illustrated volume tells the story through a lost manuscript and accompanying artwork by fourteenth-century French wine merchant and confidant of popes and kings, Robertus of Avignon (1320–1387), found in the Historical Museum of New York in 2005.

Featuring the breathtaking images of best-selling fantasy art illustrator Tom Wood and written by prolific author Robert Weinberg, this vibrant and remarkably original book is sure to be a must-have for dragon lovers and historical fantasy fans alike.

In the fourteenth century, a horrific plague swept out from the barbaric East to decimate the great nations of Europe. This killer that spared no man, woman, or child—the Black Death—is well-known and documented. But there was also a second disaster that occurred at the same time, no less brutal than the Black Death, a living plague that killed without mercy which has gone untold and unrecorded—until now. A plague consisting of a horde of monstrous beasts unlike any seen before, or since: a plague of dragons.

This lavishly illustrated volume tells the story through a lost manuscript and accompanying artwork by fourteenth-century French wine merchant and confidant of popes and kings, Robertus of Avignon (1320–1387), found in the Historical Museum of New York in 2005. Discovered in a box of artifacts, historical documents, and original illustrations purchased by the museum in 1922, his illuminated manuscript and more than two dozen illustrations are reproduced in this spectacular volume that brings to life in great detail the majestic, domineering, and dangerous qualities of dragons.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

1.THE GREAT PLAGUES

2.DOMAIN OF MONSTERS

3.BORN OF FIRE

4.A RILLING BEAST

5.TWIN HORRORS

6.THE COMING OF THE DRAGON HORDE

7.BREATH OF FIRE

8.THE HOLY ORDER OF DRAGON KINGHTS

9.FIRE THROUGH EUROPE: CHALLENGE OF THE BLUE DRAGON

10.THE TALE OF THE SWORO-MAIDEN

11.SLAY OR BE SLAIN

12.WHAT OWELLS BENEATH

13.AN LINWILLING PAWN

14.HELLBORNE

15.THE ROGUE DRAGON

16.HOW IT ENDED

17.SHADOWS IN OUR NIGHTMARES

FINAL WORDS OF WARNING