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The Da Vinci Code
''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''—''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris entangles them in a dispute between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus and Mary Magdalene having had a child together. The novel explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's '' The Templar Revelation'' (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to '' The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (1982), although Brown stated that it was not used as research material. ''The Da Vinci Code'' provoked a popular inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priory Of Sion
The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organisation founded in France and dissolved in 1956 by hoaxer Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantard began claiming that his self-styled order was the latest front organisation, front for a secret society founded by crusading knight Godfrey of Bouillon, on Mount Zion in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, under the guise of the historical monastic Order of Sion, order of the Abbey of Our Lady of Mount Zion. As a framework for his grandiose assertion of being both the Last_Roman_Emperor#Catholic_tradition, Great Monarch prophesied by Nostradamus and a Merovech, Merovingian pretender, Plantard further claimed the Priory of Sion was engaged in a centuries-long benevolent conspiracy to install a secret bloodline of the Merovingian dynasty on the thrones of France and the rest of Europe. To Plantard's surprise, all of his claims were fused with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criticism Of The Da Vinci Code
'' The Da Vinci Code'', a popular suspense novel by Dan Brown, generated criticism and controversy after its publication in 2003. Many of the complaints centered on the book's speculations and misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Catholic Church. Additional criticisms were directed toward the book's inaccurate descriptions of European art, history, architecture, and geography. Charges of copyright infringement were leveled by the novelist Lewis Perdue and by the authors of the 1982 book '' The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'', which puts forward the hypothesis that the historical Jesus married Mary Magdalene, and that their children or their descendants emigrated to what is now southern France, and married into families that became the Merovingian dynasty, whose claim to the throne of France is championed today by the Priory of Sion. In 2006, a court ruled in Brown's favor, stating that while he referenced the book in parts of his novel, he d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Brown
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), ''Inferno (Brown novel), Inferno'' (2013), Origin (Dan Brown novel), ''Origin'' (2017) and ''The Secret of Secrets (Brown novel), The Secret of Secrets'' (2025). His novels are treasure hunts that usually take place over a period of 24 hours.Brown. Witness statement, pp. 17, 21. They feature recurring themes of cryptography, art, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 57 languages and, as of 2012, have sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, ''Angels & Demons'', ''The Da Vinci Code'', and ''Inferno'', have been Robert Langdon (franchise), adapted into films, while one of them, ''The Lost Symbol'', was adapted into a The Lost Symbol (TV series), television series. The Robert Langdon novel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of French Monarchs
France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Franks (), as the first king of France. However, historians today consider that such a kingdom did not begin until the establishment of West Francia, after the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century. Titles The kings used the title "King of the Franks" () until the late twelfth century; the first to adopt the title of "King of France" (Latin: ''Rex Franciae''; French language, French: ''roi de France'') was Philip II of France, Philip II in 1190 (r. 1180–1223), after which the title "King of the Franks" gradually lost ground. However, ''Francorum Rex'' continued to be sometimes used, for example by Louis XII in 1499, by Francis I of France, Francis I in 1515, and by Henry II of France, Henry II in about 1550; it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures, which is one of the Major film studios, "Big Five" film studios and a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack Cohn, Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded the studio as CBC Film Sales Corporation, Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968), went public two years later, and eventually began to use the image of Columbia (personification), Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Da Vinci Code (film)
''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2006 mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown's 2003 novel of the same name. The first in the ''Robert Langdon'' film series, the film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany. In the film, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious symbology from Harvard University, is the prime suspect in the grisly and unusual murder of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. On the body, the police find a disconcerting cipher and start an investigation. Langdon escapes with the assistance of police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, and they begin a quest for the legendary Holy Grail. Sir Leigh Teabing, a noted British Grail historian, tells them that the actual Holy Grail is explicitly encoded in Leonardo da Vinci's wall painting '' The Last Supper''. Also searching for the Grail is a secret cabal within Opus Dei, an actual prelature of the Holy See, who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the following decades, a series of acquisitions made it into one of the largest publishers in the United States. In 2013, it was merged with Penguin Group to form Penguin Random House, which is owned by the Germany-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Penguin Random House uses its brand for Random House Publishing Group and Random House Children's Books, as well as several imprints. Company history 20th century Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random", which suggested the name Random ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Best-selling Books
This page provides lists of best-selling books and book series to date and in any language. ''"Best-selling"'' refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comic book, Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. According to ''Guinness World Records'', as of 1995, the Bible was the best-selling book of all time, with an estimated 5billion copies sold and distributed. Sales estimates for other printed religious texts include at least copies for the Qur'an and 200 million copies for the Book of Mormon. Also, a single publisher has produced more than 162.1 million copies of the Bhagavad Gita. The total number could be much higher considering the widespread distribution and publications by ISKCON. The ISKCON has distributed about 503.39 million Bhagavad Gita since 1965. Among non-religious texts, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Christian Denominations
A Christian denomination is a distinct religion, religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, Ecclesiastical polity, organization and doctrine. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, such as church, convention, communion, assembly, house, union, network, or sometimes fellowship. Divisions between one denomination and another are primarily defined by authority and doctrine. Issues regarding the Christology, nature of Jesus, Trinity, Trinitarianism, Salvation in Christianity, salvation, the authority of apostolic succession, Christian eschatology, eschatology, conciliarity, papal supremacy and papal primacy among others may separate one denomination from another. Groups of denominations, often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—can be known as "branches of Christianity" or "denominational families" (e.g. Eastern Christianity, Eastern or Western Christianity and their sub-branches). Thes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Christianity
The history of Christianity began with the life of Jesus, an itinerant Jewish preacher and teacher, who was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified in Jerusalem . His followers proclaimed that he was the Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation of God in Christianity, God and had Resurrection of Jesus, risen from the dead. In the two millennia since, Christianity has spread across the world, becoming the List of religious populations, world's largest religion with Christian population growth, over two billion adherents worldwide. Christianity was initially a Grassroots, grassroots movement spread within cities by apostles, reaching Critical mass (sociodynamics), critical mass by the third century when it grew to over a million adherents. Constantine the Great and Christianity, The support of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, Constantine in the early fourth century was important in transforming it into an organized religion with New Testament, a formalized religious text. Consta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such. A mysterious "grail" (Old French: ''graal'' or ''greal''), wondrous but not unequivocally holy, first appears in '' Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', an unfinished chivalric romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190. Chrétien's story inspired many continuations, translators and interpreters in the later-12th and early-13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who portrayed the Grail as a stone in ''Parzival''. The Christian, Celtic or possibly other origins of the Arthurian grail trope are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
