Books: Stupor Mundi

THE GREAT INFIDEL (431 pp.)—Joseph Jay Deiss—Random House ($5.95).

Frederick the Second—Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Germans, King of Sicily, scholar, scientist, quarreler with Popes, prodigious lecher, successful Crusader, political innovator—is a blazing figure in a period in history (the first half of the 13th century) that the casual student too often slides by. The attention is caught briefly, perhaps, by Frederick's nickname, Stupor Mundi (wonder of the world), and by accounts that his scientific curiosity led him to experiment with live servants. But ahead, amplified by history's hindsound, are the first horn calls of the Renaissance. The temptation is to...