Multi-talented is a vast understatement when used to describe Matt Bronleewe! I have worked with Matt in his song-writing and producing capacity for many years now and have long been impressed with his creativity. Now we add novelist to the list! This book reads like a movie. With drama and realism combined, Matt takes his readers on an unforgettable and thought-provoking journey. Rock on Matt!

—Rebecca St. James

Illuminated flickers with past secrets, present puzzles and a future that could fade to black at any moment.

—In the Library Reviews

Title Page

ILLUMINATED

matt bronleewe

Copyright Page

© 2007 by Matt Bronleewe

This item is produced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Author is represented by the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc.,
7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920,
www.alivecommunications.com

Thomas Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business,
fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail
[email protected].

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Page Design by Casey Hooper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bronleewe, Matt.
  Illuminated / Matt Bronleewe.
    p. cm.
  ISBN 978-1-59554-249-6
  1. Manuscripts, Medieval--Fiction. I. Title.
  PS3602.R64266I45 2007
  813'.6--dc22

2007015670

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 QW 9 8 7 6 5

Dedication

For Karin.
Your love has illuminated the path of my life.

Truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts that guard the common treasures. Let us break the seal that binds these holy things, let us give wings to truth that it might fly.

JOHANNES GUTENBERG

Contents

contents

prologue

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

eleven

twelve

thirteen

fourteen

fifteen

sixteen

seventeen

eighteen

nineteen

twenty

twenty-one

twenty-two

twenty-three

twenty-four

twenty-five

epilogue

further mysteries

acknowledgments

Prologue

prologue

AD 1415
KONSTANZ, GERMANY

The storm clouds unleashed their torrent of rain upon the people gathered by the street. None scattered for cover. All were waiting for the heretic to pass by. All were waiting for the opportunity to spit in his face, throw a rock at his feet, mock his defiance of the Holy Roman Empire. Their hatred grew as they jostled for a better view, a front-row view of the hellfire in the devil worshipper’s eyes. Seventeen-year-old Johannes Gutenberg struggled through the confusion, his own eyes fixed on his father.

“Try to keep up,” his father said. “The metallurgist won’t wait forever.”