Fallen order intrigue, heresy, and scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio

A multifaceted study of seventeenth-century Rome captures the political intrigues, personal rivalries, and Byzantine workings of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in a study of the Piarist Order, an educational order abolished in 1646 because of the sexual abuse of children and the cover-ups and deceptions practiced by the Church. 25,000 first printing.

Karen Liebreich has a doctorate in history from Cambridge University and a research diploma from the European University Institute in Florence. She has worked as a cultural assistant for the French Institute in London, and has been a television documentary researcher and producer. She is the author of Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio (2004) and The Letter in the Bottle: A True Story (2006).