The celebrated English historian Trevor-Roper, bestselling author of The Last Days of Hitler
, wrote relatively few books but many essays, nearly all about the Renaissance and the Reformation. After his death in 2003, a search of his papers uncovered this full-length manuscript, composed in the 1970s and worked on periodically thereafter; it has been diligently and sensitively edited by Blair Worden. Trevor-Roper, always fascinated by the intersection of medicine and politics, examines the life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne, personal physician to three kings—Henry IV of France, James I and Charles I of England—as well as secret agent and diplomat, chemist and alchemist. Trevor-Roper wrote this as a "layman's book," and it is less a detailed history of medicine than a portrait of a remarkable man in the still more remarkable social and intellectual world of the 17th century. Often remembered now for his overhurried "authentication" of the Hitler Diaries, an unfortunate error he was never allowed to forget, Trevor-Roper posthumously demonstrates his mastery as a historian, detective and narrative stylist. One hopes there are yet more unpublished manuscripts lurking among his papers, but if there are not, then this book stands as a fine capstone to a brilliant career. (Nov.)
