Part 2: Chapters 13-15 Summary

Before he will see her working from a boat, Bucino decides to try to sell one of their last remaining possessions: a volume of Petrach's sonnets that a publisher's apprentice left with them before fleeing Rome himself. However, the book has a lock on it, and he cannot break the code. He therefore takes it to the Jew to work through it, and though the man is initially hesitant to work with a possibly Christian book, he accepts the task. Nevertheless, when Bucino returns later, the man is very rude to him and thrusts the book back at him, telling him never to return. Still, Bucino gets the code from him. Opening the book, he sees that it is an illustrated pornographic text written by Pietro years ago - infamous in Rome, and thought to have been completely eradicated...