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THE INTELLIGENCER
by Leslie Silbert

C H A P T E R      S I X

The Tower of London
From Anthonis van den Wyngaerde's Panorama of London, c. 1544. Note Tower Wharf and the waterway to Traitors' Gate at the bottom of the image. Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

East London
From Anthonis van den Wyngaerde's Panorama of London, c. 1544. Note the Tower with its four minaret-like spires, and the Thames winding east toward Deptford and Greenwich. Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

C H A P T E R      S E V E N

Christopher Marlowe's Signature
The signature third from the top is the only known example of Marlowe's handwriting. It comes from a will that Marlowe witnessed in 1585. He spelled his surname "Marley," which is one of the many spellings he and others used during and after his lifetime. Note the backward "e," a hallmark of the sixteenth-century style of handwriting known as Elizabethan secretary hand.

Elizabethan Cipher Key
A cipher key used during Elizabeth I's reign. Click here to view the full image. There are characters representing the months of the year and other commonly used words, as well as the major players in Europe, such as the pope and various kings and queens. Courtesy of The National Archives, London.

C H A P T E R      E I G H T

The Dutch Church Libel, 1593
Click here to read the so-called "Dutch Church libel." The poem, which threatens London's immigrants with murder, was affixed to the wall of the Dutch church on London's Broad Street on the evening of May 5, 1593. It was signed with the name of one of Marlowe's dramatic heroes, Tamburlaine, and makes other allusions to his plays: the lines about the "Machiavellian Marchant" reference Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and the phrase "paris massacre" alludes to Marlowe's Massacre at Paris. Courtesy of English Literary Renaissance, 3 (1973).

C H A P T E R      E L E V E N

Via Giulia, Rome
A cobbled street in the heart of the old city, designed by Donato Bramante for Pope Julius II. †

A Renaissance palazzo on the Via Giulia, similar to the one in which Luca de Tolomei lives. †

† Photograph taken by Leslie on a research trip.

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©2005 Leslie Silbert. All rights reserved.
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