Da Vinci Code

For the film adaptation, to see Da Vinci Code (film) .

The Da Vinci Code ( The Da Vinci Code ) is a novel written by Dan Brown in 2003 and composing the second shutter of the trilogy Robert Langdon . The title of the first French-speaking edition was the Code of Vinci . It was adapted to the cinema in 2006 by Ron Howard.

Synopsis

The history is articulated around the character of Robert Langdon, American symbologist involved in spite of him, at the time of a voyage to Paris, in the business of the murder of Jacques Saunière, preserving with the Musée of Louvre. Langdon is suspected of the murder, mainly because of a message that Saunière wrote on the ground before dying, being completed by the sentence “P.S. To find Robert Langdon”. Only Sophie Nephew, police inspector and grand-daughter of Salt box, believe in the innocence of the American. It will help it to escape the Fache police chief, launched with his cases, and to find itself the true culprit to prove his innocence. But for that, Langdon and Neveu will have, initially, to seek to include/understand the true direction of the message of Salt box…

Langdon and Neveu discover thereafter that Saunière was with the head of the Prieuré of Sion, and that he was assassinated by a member of the Opus Dei. This one wanted to protect a secrecy whose conservative of Louvre was informed, a secrecy likely to shake the bases of Christendom: Jesus de Nazareth had a child with Marie-madeleine. Touched of a ball in the belly, failing, Saunière fear had which the secrecy does not lose after its death, and thus sought to transmit it to its grand-daughter. For that, he wrote on the ground an obscure message, of which he hoped that only Sophie could include/understand it, provided that she is helped by the symbologist Langdon, in whom he had confidence (from where it “Trouver Robert Langdon”, which is by no means a charge against the American). He also chose to die in a position ritual symbolic system, pointing out that of the Homme of Vitruve, of Leonard de Vinci, thus allowing Sophie and Langdon to understand that the famous secrecy has a relationship with the Italian painter who was, according to the novel, the chief of the Priory of Sion.

The subject of the Da Vinci Code is the secret fight between the leading authorities of the Roman Catholic church and the Prieuré of Sion, old and powerful brotherhood. The object of this fight is a known secrecy of the two organizations, namely paternity of Christ. The disclosure of this secrecy would threaten the capacity of the Church and would be likely to shake the bases of Western civilization. Anxious to preserve its capacity, the Church thus seems to seek to destroy any holder of the famous secrecy (of which Priory), while the members of the Priory fight for the safeguarding of this same secrecy, that they are transmitted from generation to generation. In background the idea is in addition evoked according to which the Catholic church, wanting to acquire and keep the capacity, interposed and imposed like intermediary between the man and God. Thus, the sexual union, which leave all the place to the otherness man - woman and who is an average privileged person to enter in direct contact with God (see the scene of the Hieros Gamos, Sacred union), is declared sinned.

Characters

The principal characters of the history are:

Robert Langdon: professor of religious symbolic system at the university of Harvard
Jacques Saunière: preserving of the Louvre, assassinated at the beginning of the book

Sophie Nephew: grand-daughter of Jacques Saunière, Cryptologue working for the French police force
Bezu Fache: police chief of the French judicial police
Silas: Monk Albino devoted to the Opus Dei
Monseigneur Manuel Aringarosa: directing of the Opus Dei with New York
Andre Vernet: directing of night of the bank of Zurich
Rémy Legaludec: domestic and driver to sir Leigh Teabing
Jerome Collet: inspector of the French judicial police
Sir Leigh Teabing: Historian English, knight of the Crown, specialist in the Graal, near in Langdon

Places of the history

France

Museum of Louvre to Paris
Church Saint-Sulpice with Paris
Castle of the Villette to Condécourt
Airport of Le Bourget
Hotel Ritz, Paris
Swiss bank

England

Aerodrome of Biggin Hill
Abbey of Westminster to London

Rosslyn Chapel

Comments

Thriller in the form of play of track builds starting from many elements historical and religious, exploiting the Théorie of the plot, this novel is a phenomenon of the edition on a world level, having been sold with more than twenty million specimens in less than two years, including more than one million and half in France, where the major part of the action occurs. Its success generated a whole economic movement, in particular with a batch of books “decoding” the environments in which the characters evolve/move, of the tourist tours on the traces of those, quantity of radio programs and television, the debates, a harvest of articles, etc

The book is filled of keys and allusions, like the name of Salt box referring in the name of the abbot Bérenger Saunière, who was at the origin of the business of the treasure of Rennes-the-Castle at the end of the 19th century. One can also quote Leigh Teabing, of which the Prénom is a wink in the name of family of Richard Leigh and the Patronyme a Anagramme of that of Michael Baigent - these two men being the joint authors of the crowned Enigma , work considered as the independent source of Dan Brown (see low). The name of Langdon is an allusion to John Langdon, author of the Ambigramme S of the preceding book of Dan Brown, Anges and Démons . Bezu Fache is as for him a wink with the counterfeiters of Bézu who founded currency with Rennes-the-Castle.

Many analysts showed the inconsistencies of the intrigue of the book. For example, the setting in scene that Jacques Saunière makes around her death is presented as imperative since he is the last holder of a secrecy which would be, otherwise, lost forever. However one learns at the end from the book that not only the grandmother of Sophie is still alive (it lives in Scotland) but which it is the same with the current of the famous secrecy. Moreover, this one announces that the Priory had time to elect novel members at the vacant stations left by the assassinations of Salt box and the seneshals of the Priory. With final, the secrecy is by no means lost and all the adventure of Sophie was used only to make him find its family and to make him become aware of its hidden origins… Others point out all the same that the grandmother of Sophie is finally never with the current of the place where the Holy Grail is (at least, it is what she says to Langdon the end of the book). She affirms indeed that her late husband always wanted to maintain secrecies.

Controversies

Although the Da Vinci Code was always presented like a Fiction and not a thesis, the author maintains confusion, mixing reality, probability and pure fabrication, so much so that certain readers would have radically given up their Christian Foi . Many works, published shortly after the novel, concluded a complete analysis of the theories present in this novel; they in general tend to strongly call into question the claims of the author to historical exactitude.

Interrogations on the step of the author

The intrigue rests on facts touching with the Catholic religion and in particular with the Papauté, the Prieuré of Sion and the Opus Dei. Dan Brown affirms to make revelations on the life of Christ, the history of the Catholic church and the Opus Dei, whereas the quoted facts are in general interpreted in any other manner. The interrogations in fact were mainly caused by the warning which precedes the work: " All descriptions of monuments, of evoked secrecy and document, works of art ritual are avérées" - whereas multiple interpretations and descriptions present in the novel are regarded by many analysts as erroneous (inter alia the esoteric functions lent to the gnomon of the Saint-Sulpice Church, in Paris, who is according to them only one instrument intended for astronomical measurements, or the presence of Marie-madeleine in Cène of Léonard de Vinci).

The step of the author is doubly problematic: on the one hand, the veracity of the facts evoked in the novel is disputed, and on the other hand, many which is those in general regard the work as defamatory for the Catholic church and Opus Dei in particular. Nevertheless, Dan Brown wants to be, to a certain extent, reconciling with these institutions: thus, in chapter 82, it makes say to the character of Langdon that the New Testament is based on lies, but which it helps of the million people to become better; and in chapter 99, it as opposed to what proves that the mysterious silent partner of the assassinations of Salt box and the seneshals has nothing to do with Opus Dei or the Vatican, Langdon and Neveu had been brought to suspect. The author advances in addition, in chapter 62, the idea according to which the Vatican would never tolerate a murder at the present time, whatever the interest that it could draw.

Always it that Opus Dei required, without success is, in Sony Pictures to make insert a warning before film inspired of the novel specifying that it was about a work of fiction. Many reproaches Dan Brown for having undertaken a step aiming discrediting the Catholic church and at making pass Opus Dei for a sect.

Priory of Sion

The descent of Christ

According to the Da Vinci Code , the mission of the Priory of Sion would be to protect the dynasty mérovingienne, which would go down directly from Jesus and Marie-madeleine. The Évangile S mention six women of the name of Marie, it acts here of Marie de Magdala, disciple of Jesus who recognized it ressuscity close to his tomb, confused with the others by a secular tradition. These other women are in particular the woman “pecheress” which oignit of perfume the feet of the saver and obtained his forgiveness, Marie de Béthanie , the sister of Marthe and Lazare which oignit the head and feet of Jesus and another pecheress that Jesus saved lapidation.

To chapter 58, Dan Brown indicates that Jesus and Marie-madeleine was both of royal ascent, Jesus would belong to the house of David and Marie-madeleine, with the Tribu of Benjamin.

In chapter 60, he affirms that them Enfant was a mée girl Prénom Sarah (which means " Princess " in Hebrew) and that the Holy Grail is not a cut having been used for Christ at the time of her last meal with its apostles, but four enormous trunks transporting a whole of Document S (those could include/understand a Family tree of the descent of Jesus, mysterious the Source Q which could be written by Jesus itself, the Carnets of Marie-madeleine ) and it fleshfly of the partner of Christ. After the death of Jesus, his line would have then mingled with that with the Mérovingiens. The the Vatican would have work so that the existence of a line going down from Christ remains secret. Therefore it would have made assassinate its descendant Dagobert by Pépin of Herstal, but the line would have been prolonged with a son, Sigisbert. Godefroy de Bouillon, founder of the Priory of Sion, would belong to this line (however, only the fact that Dagobert died assassinated by Pépin of Herstal is regarded as history).

To justify the assertion of the union of Christ to a woman, the novel indicates that in the social context of the time, not to be married after 20 years raises almost of the impossible one, by quoting inter alia the Dead Sea Scroll . Nevertheless, these documents do not treat a Jesus but report the Old Testament such as powerful the sect of the Esséniens taught it, made up men having chosen the celibacy. Moreover, according to the Gospel, Jesus, tackling with his disciples the question of knowing if the celibacy were preferable with the marriage, would have said to them that the celibacy " volontaire" is a gift which seems to have for advantage essential to leave free that which has it. Jesus would have thus described (see Matthieu 19:10 - 12), not an obligation, but a voluntary decision not to marry, for one undetermined period. According to the Gospel, that which makes this choice would exert the self-control. Jesus would have thus, actually, deliberately selected to turn the back on a certain design of the capacity and Sexualité.

The treasure of Templiers

Dan Brown also intends to make revelations on the richness of the Templiers, which would have maintained a certain mystery around its origin.

According to the historical sources recognized, the order of the Pauvres Knights of Christ , become then the Ordre of Templiers , was created in the neighborhoods of 1120, after the king of Jerusalem Baudouin II made gift with the monk-soldiers of the southernmost part of the temple of Jerusalem (before shaved and plundered by Titus). They were exempted pontifical taxes as of 1199, and their mission of protection of the pilgrims placed them at the first cabins of the conquests of Antioche, of Saint Jean d' Acre, of Constantinople and Jerusalem. At the end of the 13th century, they manage more than thirteen provinces in Europe and Palestine, which would explain the origin of their richness. As for the disappearance of the order, it would be due to its dissolution in 1311 and to died in 1314 of Jacques de Molay, last chief of the organization, burned on order of Philippe Beautiful the. It is the Ordre of Hospital the which inherited all their goods.

But according to the novel of Dan Brown, the Order of the Pauvres Knights of Christ would have been rested by members of the Priory of Sion, who would have discovered under the Temple of Solomon the trunks containing the Holy Grail, thus entering in possession of documents proving that Christ had a child with Marie-madeleine. The capacity that the Vatican entrusted to Templiers and which enabled them to accumulate so many richnesses would be in fact a “gift” of Innocent II in exchange of their silence about Graal. The pope would have thus bought their silence (or obeyed with a blackmail, the novel does not slice between these two possibilities) so that they do not reveal the existence of these documents compromising for the Catholic church. And the pope Clément V itself would have ordered the arrest and the massacre of Templiers, in 1307, in order to put the hand on Graal, which it did not succeed in making, and to destroy this organization threatening for the Church; Philippe the Beautiful one would have been in this business only his accomplice.

Sources of Dan Brown

A polemic is raised as for the sources of Dan Brown for the drafting of the Da Vinci Code . The central theme of the novel consists indeed of a synthesis of the theories of several works, of which three are regarded as the major sources of the author for the construction of his account:

the crowned Enigma , of Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln
the Revelation of Templiers , of Lynn Picknett and Cleaves Prince
the Woman with the Earthenware jar of Alabaster , Margaret Starbird
Marie Madeleine and the Saint Graal , Margaret Starbird, ED. Exclusive,

These four books are qualified “pseudo-histories” by many experts.

Criticism especially carries on the crowned Enigma , which Dan Brown would have amply taken as a starting point (some showed it plagiarism), a polemical book written by three British in 1982, published the same year with London and left to France in 1983. April 7th, 2006, a British court washed Dan Brown of all suspicions of plagiarism with regard to this book () what does not prevent the disconcerting resemblances between the two works.

In the crowned Enigma , one finds the history of the Prieuré of Sion and its mission of protection of the descendants of the Christ resulting from a carnal relation between this one and Marie-madeleine, as well as the list of the large Masters of this Priory such as it appears in the Da Vinci Code .

Reactions after the publication of the novel

Of the readers, regarding as document authenticates most of this novel, enter a denunciation of the Catholic church or a fear of a plot pluriséculaire.
the Catholic church, exceeded probably a little at the beginning, at the same time by the success of the work - as the remainder of the company - and by the reactions of certain readers, engaged initially in a strategy of defense without formal judgment, with share two cardinals (more than one year and half after its publication, the cardinal Tarcisio Bertone advises firmly in March 2005, on Radio Vatican, with faithful not to read, nor to buy the novel Da Vinci Code , but the the forever prohibited Vatican itself the book). In general, it rather benefitted from it to give explanations on the sources: differences between canonical Gospels and apocryphal book S, history of the Council S, publications of theologists recognized like the Jesuit Bernard Sesboüé.
Prélature of the Opus Dei also underlines on its official Internet site the theological problems which the novel raises.
In China, the film, left in some 400 rooms on May 19th, 2006, is withdrawn by the authorities. The official reason is that this censure was to make it possible to protect the Chinese culture but also to give satisfaction to the Christians of the country. The Catholic church established in China had called with the boycotting of the feature-length film of Ron Howard.

Other tackled subjects

canonical Gospels

Jesus de Nazareth - Cène - Eucharistie - Apostle S - holy Jean - Passion - Resurrection - Bible - New Testament - Marie-madeleine

historical Characters

Alexander Pope - Bernard de Clairvaux - Constantin Ier - Isaac Newton

Christian Dogmas and buildings

Asmodée - Ier council of Nicée - Arianisme

- Cathedral of Chartres - Rosslyn Chapel - Temple of Solomon - Gnomon of the church Saint-Sulpice

pagan Religions

Worship of Mithra - Ankh - Baphomet - Worship of the Goddess - Female crowned - Hieros Gamos

Mathematical and cryptography

Golden section - Continuation of Fibonacci - Code Atbash - Codex Leiceister - Cryptex - crowned Geometry

Various

Theory of the plot - Conspiracy - Antichristianisme - Anagram - Star of David - Rosicrucian brotherhood - the Reversed Pyramid

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