James Runcie - The Colour of Heaven

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HARPER

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2003

James Runcie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007235278

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007494996

Version: 2016-10-25

for Marilyn

Cover

Title Page JAMES RUNCIE THE COLOUR OF HEAVEN

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Map No Jewel is Worth His Lady Venice Murano Siena Constantinople Persia Sar-I-Sang Tun-Huang Venice Siena Sar-I-Sang Historical Note Envoie Keep Reading Acknowledgements About the Author Praise By the Same Author About the Publisher This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. HARPER A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2003 James Runcie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9780007235278 Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007494996 Version: 2016-10-25

Dedication DEDICATION Dedication Map No Jewel is Worth His Lady Venice Murano Siena Constantinople Persia Sar-I-Sang Tun-Huang Venice Siena Sar-I-Sang Historical Note Envoie Keep Reading Acknowledgements About the Author Praise By the Same Author About the Publisher for Marilyn

Map MAP

No Jewel is Worth His Lady NO JEWEL IS WORTH HIS LADY Sapphire, nor diamond, nor emerald, Nor other precious stones past reckoning, Topaz, nor pearl, nor ruby like a king, Nor that most virtuous jewel, jasper call’d, Nor amethyst, nor onyx, nor basalt, Each counted for a very marvellous thing, Is half so excellently gladdening As is my lady’s head uncoronall’d. All beauty by her beauty is made dim; Like to the stars she is for loftiness; And with her voice she taketh away grief. She is fairer than a bud, or than a leaf. Christ have her well in keeping, of His grace, And make her holy and beloved, like Him! Jacopo da Lentino, 1250 Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Venice

Murano

Siena

Constantinople

Persia

Sar-I-Sang

Tun-Huang

Venice

Siena

Sar-I-Sang

Historical Note

Envoie

Keep Reading

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Praise

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

Sapphire, nor diamond, nor emerald,

Nor other precious stones past reckoning,

Topaz, nor pearl, nor ruby like a king,

Nor that most virtuous jewel, jasper call’d,

Nor amethyst, nor onyx, nor basalt,

Each counted for a very marvellous thing,

Is half so excellently gladdening

As is my lady’s head uncoronall’d.

All beauty by her beauty is made dim;

Like to the stars she is for loftiness;

And with her voice she taketh away grief.

She is fairer than a bud, or than a leaf.

Christ have her well in keeping, of His grace,

And make her holy and beloved, like Him!

Jacopo da Lentino, 1250

Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

No one noticed the child.

He had been left in a small boat which now sailed out towards the lagoon, following nothing but the slap and tide of each narrow canal.

It was Ascension Day in the year twelve hundred and ninety-five, and the people of Venice were parading through the streets, hoisting crimson pennants and bright-yellow banners in celebration. Tailors dressed in white tunics with crimson stars, weavers in silver cloth tippets, and cotton spinners in cloaks of fustian mingled with blacksmiths, carpenters, butchers, and bakers, singing and shouting their way towards the Piazza San Marco.

The square was filled with showmen, swindlers, soothsayers, and charlatans; jesters, jugglers, prophets, and priests. Alchemists cried out that scrapings of amber gave protection from the plague, and that an emerald pressed against naked flesh could preserve a woman from apoplexy. A dentist with silver teeth sold a special compound which he vowed would improve the value of all metal; a barber displayed a gum to make bald men hirsute; and a naked Englishman sold pine seeds which were said to guarantee invisibility as surely as the talisman of Gyges.

But no one had noticed the baby.

Teresa could have ignored him, another abandoned child due for an early death at the Foundlings’ Hospital; but once she had seen him the shock of love took hold.