'Vatican'

A city within a city, the Vatican is a complex city-state that has fascinated and seduced for centuries. Assouline's 'Vatican', authored by Caroline Pigozzi and Giovanni Maria Vian delves deep into the history of this enclave, its spirituality, its scandals and its enigmas. From its fantasy world element that has inspired cinematic visions to the real world navigation of media and issues of social and political sensitivity, as faced by modern day pontiffs, the Vatican's historical upheavals and religious schisms are all explored in this handcrafted volume, which is accompanied by archival images, dramatic photography and texts by Pigozzi, a renowned journalist and specialist in Vatican history, and historian Maria Vian, former editor in chief of L’Osservatore Romano newspaper.