The view from the veranda alone was enough to draw guests to the Palace at Cysoing, but the Duke’s Library pulled them in like honeybees to his apple orchard.  Once Eberhard became Duke of Friuli, he began acquiring small texts and ancient scrolls from other nobles or decrepit monasteries experiencing some misfortune, and his collection had become the envy of scholars and theologians from East to West.  The Duke’s open arms received all guests, but his open purse accepted their honorariums with remarkable enthusiasm.

On the day the Wessex party arrived the Library was abuzz with other guests, including a calligrapher from Cordoba, two Persians, and the monk called Gottschalk.  The Duke was engaged in deep conversation with the monk, whom he called ‘Old Fulgen”, when his oldest boy Unru...

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