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The Da Vinci Code is a mystery novel by American author Dan Brown and published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction. It is a worldwide bestseller with sales of more than 40 million copies (as of March 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy theory genres, the book is part two of a trilogy that started with Brown's 2000 novel Angels and Demons, which introduced the character Robert Langdon. In November 2004, Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition", with 160 illustrations interspersed with the text.

The plot of the novel involves a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus. The Vatican knows it is living a lie but does so to keep itself in power. The novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. Fans have lauded the book as creative, action-packed and thought-provoking. Critics have attacked it as inaccurate, sacrilegious and poorly written and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei.

Dan Brown's novel was a smash hit in 2003, even rivaling the sales of the highly popular Harry Potter series. It spawned a number of offspring books and drew glowing reviews from the New York Times, the People Magazine and Washington Post . It was lauded by many as action-packed and thought-provoking. The novel has also inspired several tour groups like Da Vinci Code tours, and companies like Ravenchase Adventures to create Da Vinci code like races and adventures using codes, ciphers, actors and gadgets. It also re-ignited interest in the history of the Catholic Church. As well as re-invigorating interest in the church, The Da Vinci Code has also spawned numerous "knockoffs" (as they are referred to by Publishers Weekly) , or novels that have a striking resemblance to The Da Vinci Code, including Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry.

Sony's Columbia Pictures has adapted the novel to film, with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing. The film is set for release on May 19 2006, and will star Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu, and Sir Ian McKellen as Leigh Teabing.

Plot summary

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The book concerns the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, to solve the murder of renowned curator Jacques Saunière (see Bérenger Saunière) of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the fact that Saunière's body is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a Pentagram drawn on his stomach in his own blood. The interpretation of hidden messages inside Leonardo's famous works, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, figure prominently in the solution to the mystery.

The main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries:

• What secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?

• Who is the mastermind behind his murder?

The novel has several concurrent storylines that follow different characters. Eventually all the storylines are brought together and resolved with the denouement.

The unraveling of the mystery requires the solution to a series of brain-teasers, including anagrams and number puzzles. The solution itself is found to be intimately connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and to a mysterious society called the Priory of Sion, as well as to the Knights Templar. The Catholic organization "Opus Dei" (a caricature of the real Opus Dei) also figures prominently in the plot.

The novel is the second book of a trilogy by Brown in which Robert Langdon is the main character. The previous book, Angels and Demons, took place in Rome and concerned the Illuminati. Although Angels and Demons is centered around the same character it is not necessary to read the book in order to understand the plot of The Da Vinci Code. The next book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2007.Its working title is The Solomon Key, and it is understood to concern Freemasonry.

Characters in the book

These are the principal characters that drive the plot of the story. It seems to be Dan Brown's style that many have names that are puns, anagrams or hidden clues:

Summary of spoilers

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• Jacques Saunière was the head of the Priory of Sion and therefore possessed the knowledge of the "keystone", which in turn reveals the location of the Holy Grail, as well as documents which would shake the foundation of Christianity and the Church. He was killed in order to extract this information from him and eliminate the members of the Priory of Sion.
• The reason that Sophie Neveu disassociated herself from her grandfather is that she witnessed him participating in a pagan sex ritual (Hieros Gamos) at his home in Normandy, when she made a surprise visit there during a break from college.
• The message Saunière wrote with an alcohol restoration marking pen on the floor before dying contained the extra line "P.S. Find Robert Langdon". This was the reason Bezu Fache suspected Langdon of being the murderer. Fache had erased this line before Langdon arrived so that Langdon would not be aware that the police suspected him. Sophie Neveu saw the entire text of the message by accident when it was faxed to her office by the police. Sophie realized immediately that the message was meant for her, since her grandfather used to call her "Princesse Sophie" (i.e. "PS") when she was a girl. From this, she also knew Langdon to be innocent. She informs him of this secretly when they are in the Louvre by telling him to call her personal voicemail box and listen to the message that she had left there for him.
• The other three lines of Saunière's blood message are anagrams. The first line are the digits of the Fibonacci sequence out of order. The second and third lines ("O, draconian devil!" and "Oh, lame saint!") are anagrams respectively for "Leonardo da Vinci" and "The Mona Lisa" (in English). These clues were meant to lead to a second set of clues. On the glass over the Mona Lisa, Saunière wrote the message "So dark the con of Man" with a curator's pen that can only be read in ultra-violet light. The second clue is an anagram for Madonna of the Rocks, another Da Vinci painting hanging nearby. Behind this painting, Saunière hid a key. On the key, written with the curator's pen, is an address.
• The key opens a safe deposit box at the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich. Saunière's account number at the bank is the Fibonacci sequence digits, arranged in the correct order.
• The instructions that Saunière revealed to Silas at gunpoint are actually a well-rehearsed lie, namely that the keystone is buried in the Church of Saint-Sulpice beneath an obelisk that lies exactly along the ancient "Rose Line" (supposedly the former Prime Meridian (as defined by the French--not internationally) which passed through Paris before it was redefined to pass through Greenwich, although the actual Paris Meridian does not pass through the actual Church of Saint-Sulpice). In reality, the message beneath the obelisk simply contains a reference to a passage in the Book of Job which reads "Hitherto shalt thou go and no further". When Silas reads this, he realizes he has been duped.
• The keystone is actually a cryptex, a cylindrical device invented by Leonardo Da Vinci for transporting secure messages. In order to open it, the combination of rotating components must be arranged in the correct order. If forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar will rupture and dissolve the message, which was written on papyrus. The rosewood box containing the cryptex contains clues to the combination of the cryptex, written in backwards script in the same manner as Leonardo's journals. While fleeing to England aboard Teabing's plane, Langdon solves the riddle and finds the combination to be "S-O-F-I-A", the ancient Greek form of Sophie's name, also meaning wisdom.

• The keystone cryptex actually contains a second smaller cryptex with a second riddle that reveals its combination. The riddle, which says to seek the orb that should be on the tomb of "a knight a pope interred", refers not to a medieval knight, but rather to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton, who was buried in Westminster Abbey, and was eulogized by Alexander Pope (A. Pope). The orb refers to the apple observed by Newton which led to his discovery of the Law of universal gravitation and thus, the combination to the second cryptex is "A-P-P-L-E".
• The Teacher is actually Sir Leigh Teabing. He learns of the identities of the leaders of the Priory of Sion and buggs their offices. Rémy is his collaborator. It is Teabing who contacts Bishop Aringarosa using a phony French accent to hide his identity and dupes him into financing the plan to find the Grail. He never intends to hand the Grail over to Aringarosa but is simply taking advantage of "Opus Dei's" resolve to find it. Instead, he believes that the Priory of Sion intends to renege on its vow to reveal the secret of the Grail to the world at the appointed time; thus, he plans to steal the Grail documents and reveal them to the world himself. It is he who informs Silas that Langdon and Sophie Neveu were at his chateau. He does not seize the keystone from them himself because he does not want to reveal his identity to them. His plan to have Silas break into his house and seize the keystone was thwarted when the police raided the house, having followed the GPS device in the truck Langdon had stolen and having heard Silas's gunshot. Teabing leads Neveu and Langdon to the Temple Church in London knowing full well that it was a blind alley. He does this to stage the hostage scene with Rémy in order to obtain the keystone without revealing his real plot to Langdon and Neveu. The call Silas receives while riding in the limousine with Rémy is in fact Teabing, surreptitiously calling from the back of the limousine.
• In order to erase all knowledge of his work, Teabing kills Rémy by giving him cognac laced with peanut powder, knowing Rémy has a deadly allergy to peanuts. Teabing also anonymously tells the police that Silas is hiding in the London headquarters of "Opus Dei".
• In Westminster Abbey, in the showdown with Teabing, Langdon secretly opens the second cryptex and removes its contents before destroying it in front of Teabing. Teabing is arrested and led away while fruitlessly begging Langdon to tell him the contents of the second cryptex and the secret location of the Grail.
• Bishop Aringarosa and Silas believe they are saving the Church, not destroying it.
• Bezu Fache figures out that Neveu and Langdon are innocent after discovering the bugging equipment in Teabing's barn.
• Silas accidentally shoots Aringarosa outside the London headquarters of "Opus Dei" while fleeing from the police. Having realized his terrible error and that he has been duped, Aringarosa tells Bezu Fache to give the bearer bonds in his brief case to the families of the murdered leaders of the Priory of Sion. Silas dies of fatal wounds.
• The final message inside the second keystone actually does not refer to Rosslyn Chapel, although the Grail was indeed once buried there, below the Star of David on the floor (the two interlocking triangles are the "blade" and "chalice", i.e., male and female symbols).
• The docent in Rosslyn Chapel is Sophie's long-lost brother.
• The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel, is Sophie's long-lost grandmother, and the wife of Jacques Saunière. She is also the woman who participated in the sex ritual with Jacques Sauniere.
• Even though all four of the leaders of the Priory of Sion are killed, the secret is not lost, since there is still a contingency plan (never revealed) which will keep the organization and its secret alive.
• The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid (i.e., the "blade", a male symbol) directly below the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre (i.e., the "chalice", a female symbol, which Langdon and Sophie ironically almost crash into while making their original escape from Bezu Fache). See La Pyramide Inversée for further discussion.
• At the end of the book, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu fall in love. They arrange to meet in Florence.

Secret of the Holy Grail

As explained by Leigh Teabing to Sophie Neveu, the figure at the right hand of Jesus is supposedly not the apostle John, but Mary Magdalene. According to the book Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ and was in fact pregnant with his child at the time of his crucifixion. The absence of a chalice in the painting supposedly indicates that Leonardo knew that Mary Magdalene was actually the Holy Grail (the bearer of Jesus' blood). This is said to be reinforced by the letter "M" that is created with the bodily positions of Jesus, Mary, and the male apostle (Saint Peter) upon whom she is leaning. The apparent absence of the "Apostle John", under this interpretation, is explained by identifying John as "the Disciple Jesus loved", allegedly code for Mary Magdalene (see also Second Apocalypse of James). The book also notes that the color scheme of their garments is exactly inverted: Jesus wears a red blouse with royal blue cape; John/Mary wears a royal blue blouse with red cape  — perhaps symbolizing two bonded halves of marriage.

According to the novel, the secrets of the Holy Grail, as kept by the Priory of Sion, are as follows:

• The Holy Grail is not a physical chalice, but a woman, namely Mary Magdalene, who carried the bloodline of Christ.

• The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.

• The Grail relics consist of the documents that testify to the bloodline, as well as the actual bones of Mary Magdalene.

• The Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion in a secret crypt, perhaps beneath Rosslyn Chapel.

• The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and Jesus' bloodline for 2000 years. This is principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine, which they have demonized as Satanic.

• Mary Magdalene was of royal descent (through the Jewish House of Benjamin) and was the wife of Jesus, of the House of David. That she was a prostitute was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship. At the time of the Crucifixion, she was pregnant. After the Crucifixion, she fled to Gaul, where she was sheltered by the Jews of Marseille. She gave birth to a daughter, named Sarah. The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene became the Merovingian dynasty of France.

• The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.

The secrets of the Grail are connected, according to the fictional novel, to Leonardo Da Vinci's work as follows:

• Leonardo was a member of the Priory of Sion and knew the secret of the Grail. The secret is in fact revealed in The Last Supper, in which no actual chalice is present at the table. The figure seated next to Christ is not a man, but a woman, his wife Mary Magdalene. Most reproductions of the work are from a later alteration that obscured her obvious female characteristics.

• The Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait by Leonardo as a woman. The androgyny reflects the sacred union of male and female which is implied in the holy union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Such parity between the cosmic forces of masculine and feminine has long been a deep threat to the established power of the Church. The name Mona Lisa is actually an anagram for "Amon L'Isa", referring to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egypt (namely Amon and Isis).

A number of different authors also speculate about the possibility of Jesus becoming a father. There are at least three children attributed to him, a daughter Tamar, born before the Crucifixion, and two sons Jesus (the Jesus Justus from the New Testament) and Josephes, both born after the Resurrection. Their names are now part of the common culture of conspiracy writers, however only two decades ago, when Holy Blood, Holy Grail was written, the names were never mentioned. The royal descents that lie at the heart of The Da Vinci Code mysteries centre on the familly of Josephes, who is supposed to be the grandfather of Aminadab del Graal, first of the "Fisher Kings". However the genealogies that are quoted in Grail lore appear to record too few generations, with children regularly being born to fathers in their 40s. One notable point about the descent from Jesus is that his supposed family appear to have left a significantly shallow impression on history.

How secret is the secret?

There is an inconsistency in the presentation of "the secret": when told of the "fact" that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, characters in the novel Langdon and Neveu react with shock and surprise, yet on page 244 Teabing says without a challenge "it's a matter of historical record" and offers other support for it being common knowledge among scholars for centuries, and in contemporary times, educated people in general.

The Original Da Vinci Code WebQuests

There are two original web-based quests available online which were initially part of a promotional campaign for the release of Dan Brown's book 'The Da Vinci Code', however the webquests have since become a popular challenge in their own right for websurfers around the world. The original Da Vinci Code WebQuest involves deciphering a series of cryptic clues using both the book and the internet to solve them. The second Da Vinci Code WebQuest, titled 'Uncover The Code', follows a similar style.

• original Da Vinci Code WebQuest
• second Da Vinci Code WebQuest aka 'Uncover The Code'

To coincide with the release of the movie based on the novel, a new series of web-based quests were launched in association with Google, called the Google Da Vinci Code Quests.

The mystery within the mystery

Part of the advertising campaign for the novel was that the artwork in the American version of the bookjacket held various codes, and that the reader who solved them via the author's website would be given a prize. Several thousand people actually solved the codes, and one name was randomly chosen to be the winner, with the name announced on live television, Good Morning America, in early 2004. The prize was a trip to Paris.

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The five hidden puzzles reveal:

• That the back of the book jacket conceals latitude and longitude coordinates, written in reverse, light red on dark red. Adding one degree to the latitude gives the coordinates of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Northern Virginia, which is the location of a mysterious sculpture called Kryptos. The coordinates were taken from part of the decrypted text of part 2 of the sculpture (part 4 has never been solved). When Brown has been asked why the coordinates are one degree off, his reply has been, "The discrepancy is intentional".

• There is a secret message hidden in the text of the book flaps.

• The words "only WW knows" can be seen on the back cover. This too is a reference to part 2 of the Kryptos sculpture .

• A circle with numbers, when combined with text from the book, reveals a secret message.

• There is reverse writing on the cover of the book.

Brown, both via his website and in person, has stated that the puzzles in the bookjacket give hints about the subject of his next novel, The Solomon Key. This repeats a theme from his earlier novels. For example, Deception Point had an encrypted message which, when solved, said, "The Da Vinci Code will surface".

In the simplified Chinese version of the Da Vinci Code. The cover has a secret text;however,this text can be easily seen. It reads :"13-3-2-1-1-8-5 O,Draconian devil! Oh, Lame Saint! P.S. Find Robert Langdon." This might mean that other versions of Da Vinci code may have a message.

Inspiration and influences

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The novel is part of the mid-twentieth-century revival of interest in Gnosticism. Its principal source book is Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which is explicitly named, among several others, at the beginning of chapter 60). It has been claimed that The Da Vinci Code is a romanticised version of this work, which was itself based on a series of short films that ran on the BBC in the late 1970s. Similarities include Mary Magdalene as the living Holy Grail, the divine origin of the French royal dynasty, occultism, ancient Egyptian wisdom, papal conspiracy and the use of steganography. In the book, the French painter Poussin with his "Et in Arcadia ego" canvas plays the same role that Brown later assigned to Leonardo da Vinci (years later one of the authors openly admitted to the press that the entire story had been invented). In reference to Baigent (one of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail), Brown named the villain of his story "Teabing" (an anagram of "Baigent").

Some also claim Brown has reworked themes from his own earlier Robert Langdon novel, Angels and Demons.

Umberto Eco's earlier Foucault's Pendulum also deals with conspiracies, including the Holy Blood conundrum (which is mentioned in passing) and the Templars but does so in a more critical fashion — it is in fact a satire about the futility of conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Nevertheless, Foucault's Pendulum has been dubbed "the thinking man's The Da Vinci Code".

Foucault's Pendulum itself is reminiscent in plot, theme and structure to the earlier The Illuminatus! Trilogy, published 13 years earlier.

Christian anarchism has also been thought to have had an influence on the book.

Postmodernism is another influence that has been suggested as an explanation for the apparent falsifications in the book. One could mention here the postmodern tendency toward "giving the irrational equal footing with the rational". Yet, postmodernism's attempt to read texts in light of assumed or real power structures deserves to be mentioned. In other words, since facts cannot be known or conveyed (or simply are not conveyed), a text's author's quest for power explains his/her "version" of the truth. Sir Leigh Teabing explictly states that the biblical account of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is "victor's history", that is, it is written to corroborate the power position of the Catholic Church which, in the view of Teabing, depends in large part on the suppression of the "sacred feminine". Similar claims would have to be made concerning the "real" religion of ancient Israel which, according to The Da Vinci Code, was headed by Jahwe-Jehova (male) and Shekhinah (female), which found its alleged symbolic expression in the Star of David (Magen David), consisting of two interlocking triangles, which are said to be ancient symobls of male and female. The reference to Shekhina (and not, e.g., Asherah) in this context brings Jewish kabbalah mysticism into the mix, which is featured prominently in U. Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. The reference to the Star of David as a male-female symbol brings in a trace of Hinduism (Shakti, female + Shiva, male = Creation). Thus, despite postmodernism's dislike of dominating "meta-narratives", Dan Brown seems to offer such a general frame of reference that puts (almost) "everything" in its interconnected place. This, obviously, raises the question whether a postmodern conspiracy theory is a self-contradiction or the purest expression of the genre yet.

Feminism in its religious form (Spiritual feminism) also plays a role in the novel in that it repeatedly stresses that the "natural" form of religion is to be governed by (at least?) two gods, one male god and a female goddess. This was, in the novel, the religion of Jesus and the first Israelites. This type of religion is said to be conducive to a more balanced and peaceful society, while a male-only religion is said to be conducive to militarism and violence. Both paradigms are exemplified in the Priory of Sion (male and female membership and leadership, "good") and the Opus Dei (male-only leaders, "bad"), respectively -- the latter, as the mad attack dog of the Catholic Church, seeking to destroy the former. Self-tormenting Silas thus represents Opus Dei and the Catholic Church when true to their "destructive" principles. According to the novel, man needs woman for wholeness and, in fact, for experiencing the divine by means of sex (see the Hieros Gamos ritual), which reveals again its predelection for the irrational and mystic (as the novel points out, in man's orgasm, there is a short period of time when the man's mind is completely empty, when he makes contact with God). Is one then to conclude that the "sacred feminine" needs no such helps but finds itself in a constant, natural state of contact with the divine?

Literary significance and criticism

The book generated criticism when it was first published, due to speculations and alleged misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity, the history of the Roman Catholic Church, and descriptions of European art, history, and architecture. The book has received mostly negative reviews from Catholic and Christian communities, as well as historians. Critics accuse Brown of distorting and fabricating history.

The book opens with the claim by Dan Brown that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate"; but this claim is disputed by many academic scholars in the fields the book discusses. As widely noted in the media, there has been substantial confusion among readers about whether the book is factual. Numerous works have been published that explain in detail why any claim to accuracy is difficult to substantiate, while two lawsuits have been brought alleging plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code.

Release details

The book has been translated into over 40 languages, primarily in hardcover . Alternate formats include audio cassette, CD, and e-book. Most recently, a Trade Paperback edition was released March 2006 in conjunction with the film.

Major English-language (hardcover) editions include:

• (US) The Da Vinci Code, March 18, 2003 (1st edition), Doubleday, ISBN 0385504209.
• The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition, November 2, 2004, Doubleday, ISBN 0385513755 (as of January 2006, has sold 576,000 copies).
• (UK) The Da Vinci Code, April 2004, Corgi Adult. ISBN 0552149519.
• (UK) The Da Vinci Code: The Illustrated Edition, October 2, 2004, Bantam Press. ISBN 0593054253.
• (US/Canada) The Da Vinci Code (Trade Paperback edition), March 2006, Anchor Books.

Future editions

• On March 28 2006, Anchor Books released 5 million paperback copies of the book, and Broadway Books released 200,000 paperback copies of The Da Vinci Code Special Illustrated Edition.

• On May 19, the day of the film's release, Doubleday and Broadway Books will release The Da Vinci Code Illustrated Screenplay: Behind the Scenes of the Major Motion Picture, by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, with introductions by Ron Howard and Dan Brown. It will include film stills, behind-the-scenes photos and the full script. There will be 25,000 copies of the hardcover, and 200,000 of the paperback version .

See also

• Alfred Tennyson
• Christian anarchism
• Desposyni - Jesus's known family
• Godfrey of Bouillon
• Judas Testament
• Knights Templar
• Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian artist
  • Mona Lisa, painting
  • The Virgin of the Rocks, paintings
  • The Last Supper, painting
  • Adoration of the Magi, painting
  • Vitruvian man, drawing
• Louvre, Paris art gallery
• Mary Magdalene
• Opus Dei, Personal Prelature of the Catholic Church
• Priory of Sion, Nautonnier
• Rosslyn Chapel, Scottish medieval collegiate church
• Saint-Sulpice (Paris), church mentioned in Priory of Sion documents
• La Pyramide Inversée, The Inverted Pyramide at Le Louvre

Further reading

• Richard Abanes, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code (Harvest House Publishers, 2004). ISBN 0736914390.
• Laurence Gardner, Genesis of the Grail Kings: The Explosive Story of Genetic Cloning and the Ancient Bloodline of Jesus (Fair Winds Press, 2002). ISBN 1931412936.
• Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, & Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Dell, 1983). ISBN 0440136482.
• Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, & Henry Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy (Dell, 1989). ISBN 0440203198.
• Darrell Bock and Francis Moloney, Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Nelson Books, 2004). ISBN 0785260463.
• Dan Burstein (ed), Secrets of the Code (CDS Books, 2004). ISBN 1593150229.
• Christopher Dawes, Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005). ISBN 1560256788.
• Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum (Ballantine Press, 1990). ISBN 0345368754.
• Bart D. Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 0195181409.
• Nicky Gumbel, The Da Vinci Code: a response (Alpha International). ISBN 1-90407481-2.
• Bernard Hamilton, Puzzling Success: Specious history, religious bigotry and the power of symbols in The Da Vinci Code (Times Literary Supplement no 5332 10 June 2005, pp. 20-21).
• Hank Hanegraaff and Paul Maier, Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? (Tyndale House Publishers, 2004). ISBN 1414302797.
• Steve Kellmeyer, Fact and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (Bridegroom Press, 2004). ISBN 0971812861.
• Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Polebridge Press, 2003) ISBN 0944344585.
• Sharan Newman, The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code (Berkley Trade, 2005) ISBN 0425200124.
• Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel, The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius Press, 2004). ISBN 1586170341.
• Mark Oxbrow and Ian Robertson, Rosslyn and the Grail (Mainstream Publishing, 2005). ISBN 1845960769.
• Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, The Templar Revelation (Touchstone, 1998). ISBN 0684848910.
• Margaret Starbird, The Goddess in the Gospels (Bear & Company, 1998). ISBN 187918155X.
• Margaret Starbird, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (Bear & Company, 1993). ISBN 1879181037.
• Amy Welborn, De-Coding Da Vinci (Our Sunday Visitor, 2004). ISBN 1592761011.
• Samael Aun Weor, The Da Vinci Gospel (Logos Press, 2005). ISBN 1411642740.

(See also The Perfect Matrimony a primary work published in 1950 by the same author).

• Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code (InterVarsity Press, 2004). ISBN 083083267X.
• Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Second Messiah (Element Books, 1998). ISBN 1862042489.
• Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction (Bantam, 1971). ISBN 0553349481.
• Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume (Bantam, 1984). ISBN 0553348981.

Parodies

The popularity of the book has fueled several parody works:

Books

• Toby Clements, The Asti Spumante Code (Time Warner Trade Publishing, 2005). ISBN 0751537683.
• Kaye Thomas, The Michelangelo Code (Fairmark Press, 2004). ISBN 0967498120.
• Henry Beard, The Dick Cheney Code (Simon & Schuster, 2004). ISBN 0743270029.
• Tom Eaton, The de Villiers Code (Penguin SA, 2005). ISBN 014302499X.
• Adam Roberts as Don Brine , The Va Dinci Cod later renamed The Da Vinci Cod: A Fishy Parody
• Chris Riddell, The Da Vinci Cod And Other Illustrations To Unwritten Books
• Kathy Crimmins, The Dali Code
• Julie Kenner, The Givenchy Code
• ER Escobar, The Givenchy Code (different book from the one mentioned above)
• Knut Nærum, Madonnagåten (The Madonna Riddle)'
• Connelly, Sharron, "The Charade of Mona Lisa Vol I and II, reveals the secrets of Mona Lisa, and secrets of Last Supper, (not MARY MAGDALENE) Willow Publications

Other

• The Albino Code : A real albino playing Silas in a short film parody.
• The Wrath of Fork Jesus : A short comic strip mystery serial inspired by the ideas behind The Da Vinci Code and set in a world of talking silverware (from the webcomic Detective Fork)
• Create Your Own Dan Brown Novel
• Da Kath & Kim Code, a telemovie of the Australian TV series Kath & Kim
• The Da Vinci Dagger : An online parody with its own interesting facts
• The 'Da Colbert Code' was used by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report as a method to predict the outcome of the 78th Academy Awards. He predicted all 4 acting awards and Best Film correctly.
• Da Rolf Harris Code, a parody based on the artist Rolf Harris on satirical show Dead Ringers.

Because critics have attacked Code for being somewhat formulaic, variations of the name have been applied to works that resemble it in some way. For example, the aforementioned Foucault's Pendulum is sometimes called "A Thinking Man's Da Vinci Code," while the 2005 novel The Historian was sarcastically called "The Dracula Code" because it shares elements with this book.

References

1. Reviews of The Da Vinci Code, Official site of Dan Brown
2. Book review of The Last Templar
3. World editions of The Da Vinci Code, Official site of Dan Brown
4. Harry Potter still magic for book sales, CBC Arts, 9 January 2006

External links

Skepticism and critical analysis

• The Truth About Da Vinci a site sponsored by Westminster Theological Seminary
• A collection of Da Vinci facts from across Christianity Now with daily Duh Vinci Moments
• Over 50 pages examining the Da Vinci Code statements (naturalist perspective, includes an active forum)
• A Different Da Vinci Code The missing pieces of Leonardo's puzzle point to plain and simple Hermeticism (altreligion.about.com article).
• An orthodox Catholic analysis /w footnotes (from Catholic Answers)
• The Da Vinci Con (New York Times review)
• The Da Vinci crock (Salon review)
• Breaking The Da Vinci Code (Christianity Today response)
• Dismantling The Da Vinci Code (Crisis Magazine response)
• Rejecting The Da Vinci Code (By the TFP Committee on American Issues)
• Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code - Part One
• The Da Vinci Code, the Catholic Church and Opus Dei (Official Opus Dei response)
• Da Vinci Decoded Fortean Times magazine unpicks the fact from the fiction
• Jesus Decoded The official site of the USCCB
• Da Vinci Code Truth Christian comparison of the claims of Dan Brown's book vs. the historical facts
• praylikethis fights the marriage and child claim by Dan Brown using Biblical data
• The Apostle John in Art
• The Da Vinci Code, Shaking the Foundations of Christianity? by Tony Pearce
• The Da Vinci Code & The Priory Of Sion 60 Minutes (CBS News)
• 10 Historical Errors in The Da Vinci Code by Bart Ehrman at the Oxford University Press blog.

Study guides and research aids

• The Truth About Da Vinci a site sponsored by Westminster Theological Seminary
• DaVinci Code Research Guide (includes background, images and research aids)
• A free study guide for the title with chapter summaries, analysis and despcriptive notes. Similar to Cliff Notes. A good study aid for a student to review.
• A photographic virtual tour of the locations in the book/film
• The Truth Behind the Da Vinci CodeAn article by author Philip Gardiner

Fan sites and forums

• Da Vinci Code Fan site with photos from paris, Forum, and News about DVC
• Da Vinci Code forum IMDB
• Preview, Trailers, Posters, Photos at WorstPreviews.com

• The Da Vinci Code forumat Rottentomatoes.com

Miscellaneous

• Ravenchase Adventures a company which sponsors real life Da Vinci Code like events for the general public within the United States and Internationally
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• SparkNotes: The Da Vinci Code Study guide with chapter summaries and interesting analysis
• The Da Vinci Grail Newly discovered Grail in the Last Supper, visible even on Dan Browns website
• Summary of Judgement April 7, 2006, Court's ruling on copyright infringement of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"
• Retrace the Da Vinci Code route Follow the route of the novel's heroes on an interactive map
• Da Vinci Code, the movie's official website
• Davinci Code: The Dialogue A site sponsored by Sony, mixing some criticism with movie promotion

Solutions

• The Da Vinci Code Quest Solutions (contains spoilers)
• Da Vinci Code webquest solutions and discussion (contains spoilers)
• another webquest solutions site (contains spoilers)
• The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google (contains spoilers)

• 2003 novels
• Dan Brown
• Opus Dei
• Priory of Sion hoax
• The Da Vinci Code
• Christian fiction and allegory
• Thriller novels
• American novels
• Cryptography books
• Crime novels
• Books critical of Christianity
• 2000s fads
• British Book Awards