Chapter+3

=__Story: Ch3__= Drawing of the Interior of the Library of Sextus IV, a fresco in the Ospedale de Santo Spirito, Rome A Carmelite Working in his Study, picture from a M.S. of Le Miroir Historial in the British Museum.

After fumbling through the next prayers I traced my previous steps back to the bookroom, but was stopped by the abbot, Borso, which alarmed me greatly. ‘Guido...’ he said, and paused, ‘you have... received a... letter. A messenger brought it during the last service. It is from... a bishop in Arezzo, ...Theobald.’ Never had I received a letter in my life! I was trying to predict what would be said in the letter, what was about to happen, if I was supposed to do something. Borso was looking at me through his spectacles, a questioning look in his small hard eyes. His hand was pointing the letter my way; an obvious gesture for me to take it, though I hadn’t noticed. I quickly accepted it and broke the seal carefully. I observed Borso, with an almost angry expression on his face, watch me keenly. Even the abbot disliked my ways. I silently sighed and moved my attention back to the parchment. It read:

//‘Dear Guido,// //I, Bishop Theobald, am inviting you to travel to Arezzo and become a music teacher at a future church. I have thought very well about this matter, and have decided you would be the perfect person for this. My reasoning for this: you have advanced the world’s musical knowledge a long way in your time at Pomposa and I would like you to further extend and educate people of your methods.// //........’// It went on, persuasively advising me to go to Arezzo and informing me of my apparently ‘marvellous musical ability’. Not a soul on this earth had ever thought this way, I was sure of it, so all of the writing came as a pleasant yet large surprise.

Chapter 4