Fake Facts from Dan Brown
FACT: author Dan Brown has a hard time with facts.
If he didn’t claim his yarns were based on facts, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. What he actually says, though, is, “References to all works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome are entirely factual (as are their exact locations). They can still be seen today.”
But the author of The Da Vinci Code fame doesn’t seem to care a lot about getting it right. By presenting his own inventions and bits of hearsay as facts he raises the bar higher than it would be if he simply admitted to making things up.
I have no plans to read The Code. Why would I? Seems to me real stories are much more fun. But because I love Rome and stories about Rome I have read the prequel, Angels and Demons. It is certainly an action-packed adventure. In the course of the intense drama of his story Brown also poses some provocative points from the classic religion vs. science debates, and does so eloquently.
Still, his misinformation and screwed-up facts are truly astonishing. For example, a few fractured facts I noticed in a quick reading of Angels and Demons:
1. It’s the Harvard Divinity School, not the Harvard School of Divinity. I should know; I went there. O.K., that’s a small carelessness (Brown’s form of the name – not attending the School!).
2. And so, too, I suppose, is his mention of “sugar maples” in Switzerland.
3. His Italian is marred by numerous misspellings. (Well, spelling foreign words can be a challenge.) Also, his Latin is sketchy. “Novus Ordo Seclorum” doesn’t mean a “new secular order.” It means a “new order of the ages.” “Seclorum,” short for “seculorum,” would have to be “saecularis” for Brown to be right. “Solum Dum prae oculis...” would mean “Only the While in sight..,” which is nonsense. (God is not “Dum!”)
4. The master Renaissance artist Michelangelo did not design the Swiss Guard faux feudal uniforms. They date from 1919, and were created by the then Captain of the Guard.
5. Moreover, Brown puts the Biblical “on this rock” promise to Peter in the wrong place in the Gospel. It wasn’t when Jesus called Peter to follow him, but during a side trip to Caesarea Philippi, when Peter said to Jesus, “You are the Christ.” And speaking of the Scriptures, the Apocrypha does not consist of “fourteen unpublished books of the Bible.” There are no unpublished books of the Bible. You can readily obtain the official canonical books, including the Apocrypha, in any Roman Catholic Bible (and a lot of Protestant Bibles.) And you can even get, in separate volumes, the non-canonical books that were omitted from the Bible.
6. But things get really crazy when Brown ventures into areas where he has claimed impeccable accuracy, including the layout and architecture of Vatican City. The circular staircase entrance to the Vatican Museums (really a spiral ramp) dates from after the 1929 Concordat with Italy. It was designed by Momo, not Michelangelo. Perhaps Brown has in mind another circular staircase nearby in the Museum, designed by Bramante (again, not Michelangelo) and built in the 16th century. Also in the staircase category, Brown seems to think the Sistine Chapel is at the bottom of the Royal Staircase (“Scala Regia”). But it’s at the top. He seems to think the Passetto along the top of the wall linking the Vatican with Castle St. Angelo ends at the Pope’s office. It ends by a terrace on the ground floor in front of the Apostolic Palace.
7. And there’s lots more. There are no high-rise buildings in downtown Rome; Renaissance church domes and medieval towers still dominate the skyline. The Colosseum (after “colossus”) is not spelled “Coliseum.” From the elevated base of the obelisk in the Fountain of the Four Rivers you could not possibly see even beyond the Piazza Navona, to say nothing of all Rome. The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria is on Piazza di San Bernardo, some distance up the hill from Piazza Barberini. Since St. Peter’s faces east its facade could not blaze in the afternoon sun. Big churches are not called “cathedrals” (and Santa Maria del Popolo is not that big.) The Apostolic Palace lacks arched windows, so there are no such windows in the Pope’s office overlooking St. Peter’s Square. (Nor are there “red marble floors” and “a colossal chandelier.”) Those are all architecture and location faux pas. Brown makes other blunders as well: Cardinals wear red, not black. The United Church of Christ theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the “Serenity Prayer,” not St. Francis of Assisi. And does that great coffee bar Tazza d’Oro really have an outdoor cafe?
Now, does any of this matter? Only if you take Brown at his word. Only if you repeat his misinformation with self-assurance. Only if you think anyone who takes on a know-it-all air, whether it be Brown’s characters holding forth on Rome, or government officials on Iraq, or the economy –- or anything at all – has to be giving you the “facts.”
That includes me and what I’ve written here! Double-check it out.
My sources:
THE VATICAN – Hebblethwaite and others (Vendome)
VATICAN – Papafava (Tipografia Vaticana)
GUIDE TO THE VATICAN MUSEUMS AND CITY - (Tipografia Vaticana)
INSIDE THE VATICAN – McDowell (National Geographic Society)
One year of living in Rome
If he didn’t claim his yarns were based on facts, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. What he actually says, though, is, “References to all works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome are entirely factual (as are their exact locations). They can still be seen today.”
But the author of The Da Vinci Code fame doesn’t seem to care a lot about getting it right. By presenting his own inventions and bits of hearsay as facts he raises the bar higher than it would be if he simply admitted to making things up.
I have no plans to read The Code. Why would I? Seems to me real stories are much more fun. But because I love Rome and stories about Rome I have read the prequel, Angels and Demons. It is certainly an action-packed adventure. In the course of the intense drama of his story Brown also poses some provocative points from the classic religion vs. science debates, and does so eloquently.
Still, his misinformation and screwed-up facts are truly astonishing. For example, a few fractured facts I noticed in a quick reading of Angels and Demons:
1. It’s the Harvard Divinity School, not the Harvard School of Divinity. I should know; I went there. O.K., that’s a small carelessness (Brown’s form of the name – not attending the School!).
2. And so, too, I suppose, is his mention of “sugar maples” in Switzerland.
3. His Italian is marred by numerous misspellings. (Well, spelling foreign words can be a challenge.) Also, his Latin is sketchy. “Novus Ordo Seclorum” doesn’t mean a “new secular order.” It means a “new order of the ages.” “Seclorum,” short for “seculorum,” would have to be “saecularis” for Brown to be right. “Solum Dum prae oculis...” would mean “Only the While in sight..,” which is nonsense. (God is not “Dum!”)
4. The master Renaissance artist Michelangelo did not design the Swiss Guard faux feudal uniforms. They date from 1919, and were created by the then Captain of the Guard.
5. Moreover, Brown puts the Biblical “on this rock” promise to Peter in the wrong place in the Gospel. It wasn’t when Jesus called Peter to follow him, but during a side trip to Caesarea Philippi, when Peter said to Jesus, “You are the Christ.” And speaking of the Scriptures, the Apocrypha does not consist of “fourteen unpublished books of the Bible.” There are no unpublished books of the Bible. You can readily obtain the official canonical books, including the Apocrypha, in any Roman Catholic Bible (and a lot of Protestant Bibles.) And you can even get, in separate volumes, the non-canonical books that were omitted from the Bible.
6. But things get really crazy when Brown ventures into areas where he has claimed impeccable accuracy, including the layout and architecture of Vatican City. The circular staircase entrance to the Vatican Museums (really a spiral ramp) dates from after the 1929 Concordat with Italy. It was designed by Momo, not Michelangelo. Perhaps Brown has in mind another circular staircase nearby in the Museum, designed by Bramante (again, not Michelangelo) and built in the 16th century. Also in the staircase category, Brown seems to think the Sistine Chapel is at the bottom of the Royal Staircase (“Scala Regia”). But it’s at the top. He seems to think the Passetto along the top of the wall linking the Vatican with Castle St. Angelo ends at the Pope’s office. It ends by a terrace on the ground floor in front of the Apostolic Palace.
7. And there’s lots more. There are no high-rise buildings in downtown Rome; Renaissance church domes and medieval towers still dominate the skyline. The Colosseum (after “colossus”) is not spelled “Coliseum.” From the elevated base of the obelisk in the Fountain of the Four Rivers you could not possibly see even beyond the Piazza Navona, to say nothing of all Rome. The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria is on Piazza di San Bernardo, some distance up the hill from Piazza Barberini. Since St. Peter’s faces east its facade could not blaze in the afternoon sun. Big churches are not called “cathedrals” (and Santa Maria del Popolo is not that big.) The Apostolic Palace lacks arched windows, so there are no such windows in the Pope’s office overlooking St. Peter’s Square. (Nor are there “red marble floors” and “a colossal chandelier.”) Those are all architecture and location faux pas. Brown makes other blunders as well: Cardinals wear red, not black. The United Church of Christ theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the “Serenity Prayer,” not St. Francis of Assisi. And does that great coffee bar Tazza d’Oro really have an outdoor cafe?
Now, does any of this matter? Only if you take Brown at his word. Only if you repeat his misinformation with self-assurance. Only if you think anyone who takes on a know-it-all air, whether it be Brown’s characters holding forth on Rome, or government officials on Iraq, or the economy –- or anything at all – has to be giving you the “facts.”
That includes me and what I’ve written here! Double-check it out.
My sources:
THE VATICAN – Hebblethwaite and others (Vendome)
VATICAN – Papafava (Tipografia Vaticana)
GUIDE TO THE VATICAN MUSEUMS AND CITY - (Tipografia Vaticana)
INSIDE THE VATICAN – McDowell (National Geographic Society)
One year of living in Rome
posted by David at 11:55 AM
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