A Borgia table in Rome

The papal apartments are crowded with the business of the Curia, and Alexander has set a table for four in a smaller room. Cesare has come from the camp with dust on his boots; Machiavelli is in Rome on a diplomatic errand and has been watching the Borgias closely; Copernicus, in Italy to study law and medicine, has been brought along by a common friend.

The pope is an easy host and a formidable one, and the conversation moves from the Romagna to the reform of the calendar to the question of whether the Earth can really be the center of things. Copernicus says almost nothing about his own ideas. Over tortellini in broth, roast pigeon, and mushrooms, the old cardinal's son and the young canon take each other's measure.