“While many historians continue to abandon the field of popular history, focusing instead on the scholarly monograph, journal article, and textbook, it is to be hoped that the void is filled by books of a quality equal to this one.”—The Medieval ReviewrnrnOne of the most remarkable personalities of the Middle Ages, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II ruled a kingdom extending from southern Denmark to Sicily, from modern Belgium to Bohemia. Frederick was a polymath with interests ranging from sculpture, architecture, and poetry to mathematics and science, earning himrnadmiration from his contemporaries who called him Stupor mundi, “Wonder of the World.” Based on the latest scholarship and written for the general reader this book provides the complete story of this complex and fascinating man.