The monastery at Siani was famous throughout the academic world for its library. The monks of medieval days routinely obtained ancient, crumbling manuscripts and recopied them. Among them, hidden in a wall in the cellar, the following parchment was found and faithfully recopied in the practiced hand of the Sianian monks several centuries after its original writing: “According to the official Catalogue of Popes, after the Holy Father Leo IV died in the Year of Our Lord, Eight hundred fifty-five, he was succeeded by Pope Benedict III.I, Martin Paschal, swear upon my eternal soul that the Catalogue lies. Leo died on the twentieth day of June, eight hundred fifty-four, and to him succeeded John, who was a woman, who sat on the Papal Throne for two years, five months, and four days…”This is not the first time that the sensational enigma of the legendary female Pope has been explored, but this version is different from all others in that it treats its characters with the seriousness and depth they deserve, while telling an epic story of Europe in the throes of birth in the darkest of the Dark Ages.
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