The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra

 “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 particular 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 bequeathed 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 modern reader the ability both to understand them and to benefit from their infinite wisdom.”

Father Agostino Leyre is part of a secret order, faithful to the Pope and to the highest powers in the Dominican Order. He was trained to decipher messages. In Rome, he collects letters from an anonymous witness detailing operation of a sorcerer in the lands of Ludovico il Moro, “who believed that the ancients had a knowledge of the world far more advanced than ours. (…) The Athenians did not believe in God, but in the influence of the heavenly bodies.”

“According to the Soothsayer (anonymous sorcerer), the old banker (Cosimo the Elder) had founded an academy, in the style of the Greek ones, whose sole purpose was to teach these secrets to artists.” Which means “that art can be employed as a weapon!”

The work of the artist Sandro Botticelli was condemned, because he used “images inspired by pagan cults to illustrate works destined for the Church.” And “the story was threatening to repeat itself in Milan.”

At the same time, in Milan, it’s taking Leonardo da Vinci quite some time to finish his painting of the Last Supper at the refectory of Santa Maria. This delay only feeds the rumors of Leonardo trying to hide some message behind the gestures of the Apostles. As “Leonardo worked in Florence for many years and was acquainted with the descendants of Cosimo the Elder.”

The Dominican Order worries about new heretical threat. Father Agostino is sent to Milan to identify their informer, and to “find out what truth lies in this new danger and attempt to discover a remedy for it.”

What he finds in Milan is much more than he has expected. Father Prior is trying to solve a riddle himself since “Leonardo’s work holds far too many misunderstanding. Too many veiled allusions.”

The story is very informative and gives a lot of details in solving a riddle. But I’d rather have a bit less of this and more of exploring the depth of characters.

Nevertheless, the story brings a lot of details characterizing such genius as Leonardo da Vinci. For example, he always carried a pad with him to make notes all the time, so no though would escape him. 

The story is intertwined with Cathars. If you’re not familiar with this Gnostic revival movement, I highly recommend The Treasure of Montsegur: A Novel of the Cathars by Sophy Burnham.

There is also mention of Father Savonarola and Lorenzo de Medici, both names well presented in Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell. If you reach for this book, just keep in mind that the aspect of Leonardo da Vinci’s mother having a romantic relation with Lorenzo de Medici is very far-fetched. 

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