Cover of Foucault's Pendulum, 1989 Picador edition.

Foucault's Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later. It is full of obscure esoteric facts about things like Kabbalah, alchemy, and conspiracy theory. The novel is an encyclopedic work, with critic and novelist Anthony Burgess suggesting that it needed an index. The name of the book derives from an actual pendulum designed by the French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (403x614, 422 KB) Summary Cover of Umberto Ecos Foucaults Pendulum, published by Picador, 1989 edition. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (403x614, 422 KB) Summary Cover of Umberto Ecos Foucaults Pendulum, published by Picador, 1989 edition. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Picador is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, a publisher owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Photo of Umberto Eco by Robert Birnbaum Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose and his many essays. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Fense Weaver (b. ... Etymology Esoteric is an adjective originating during Hellenic Greece under the domain of the Roman Empire; it comes from the Greek esôterikos, from esôtero, the comparative form of esô: within. It is a word meaning anything that is inner and occult, a latinate word meaning hidden (from which... This article is about the overall Jewish mysticisms tradition. ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... This proposed logo for the US Information Awareness Office was dropped due to fears that its Masonic symbolism would provoke conspiracy theories. ... Anthony Burgess (February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993) was an English novelist and critic. ... Foucaults Pendulum in the Panthéon, Paris A Foucault pendulum, or Foucaults pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth; its action is a result of the Coriolis effect. ... J. B. Léon Foucault Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (name pronounced Foo-Koh)(18 September 1819–11 February 1868) was a French physicist best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earths rotation. ...

It is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. Told in the form of a kind of satirical intellectual game, three friends create a fictitious plan (the "Plan") that stretches throughout history and combines elements from conspiracy theories. They feed the plan into a computer that in turn helps them formulate a new conspiracy theory, which is then believed to be true by adherents of the previous conspiracies, leading to disastrous consequences. The plot and structure is reminiscent of that of the American "popular fiction" series, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, published 13 years earlier; it is unclear if Eco was aware of the earlier work before he conceived the idea. The tree of life. ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. ... Cover of the collected edition The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. ...

Plot

The Foucault pendulum at the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris plays a major part in the novel.

The book begins with the narrator, Casaubon (his name refers to classical scholar Meric Casaubon, and as an example of Eco's beloved intertextuality, to the main character in George Eliot's Middlemarch, also a scholar) hiding in fear after closing time in the Parisian technical museum, Musée des Arts et Métiers. He believes that the Templars have kidnapped his friend Jacopo Belbo and are after him, too. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Foucaults Pendulum in the Panthéon, Paris A Foucault pendulum, or Foucaults pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth; its action is a result of the Coriolis effect. ... Foucault pendulum at the Musée des arts et métiers The Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, which was founded in 1794 as a depository for the preservation of scientific... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ... Florence Estienne Méric Casaubon (August 14, 1599 - July 14, 1671), son of Isaac Casaubon, was an English classical scholar. ... Photo of Umberto Eco by Robert Birnbaum Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose and his many essays. ... Intertextuality is a relationship between two or more texts that quote from one another, allude to one another, or otherwise connect. ... George Eliot Mary Ann Evans, better known by the pen name George Eliot (22 November 1819 - 22 December 1880), was an English novelist. ... Middlemarch is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1871. ... Foucault pendulum at the Musée des arts et métiers The Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, which was founded in 1794 as a depository for the preservation of scientific...

The story is then told in flashback. In literature and film, a flashback takes the narrative back in time from the point the story has reached, to recount events that happened before and give the back-story. ...

In 1970s Milan, Casaubon is a student writing a thesis on the history of the Knights Templar and watching the revolutionary and counter-revolutionary activities of the students around him. He encounters Belbo, who works as an editor in a publishing house. Belbo invites Casaubon to come and give his opinion as an expert on a book that has been submitted to him for publication about the Templars. Casaubon meets Belbo's colleague Diotallevi, a cabalist. Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese -dialect of Lombard-: Milán) is the main city of northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy. ... This article is about the medieval military order. ... This article is about the overall Jewish mysticisms tradition. ...

The book, by Colonel Ardenti, is patent nonsense that claims to have discovered, through a hidden coded manuscript, a secret plan of the medieval Templars to take over the world and in the process, revenge themselves for the death of their leaders when the order is disbanded by the King of France. Ardenti postulates that the Templars were the guardians of an energy secret: they knew about a secret, possibly radioactive energy source, the Holy Grail of legend. In Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, cup or vessel used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers. ...

After the French monarchy and the Catholic Church disband the Templars on the grounds of heresy, some knights escape and establish cells throughout the world. According to the Plan, the cells are set to meet at distinct long-term intervals at distinct places, passing on information about the Grail, and in the end are to reunite to rediscover its location — in order to achieve world domination. According to Ardenti's calculations, the Templars should have taken over the world in 1944; evidently the plan has been interupted.

That evening Ardenti goes missing. A police inspector, De Angelis, interviews both Belbo and Casaubon. He hints his job as a political department investigator leads him to investigate people who claim to be linked to the Occult as well as revolutionaries.

After this experience Casaubon goes to Brazil for two years and encounters South American and Caribbean spiritualism. There he enters into a relationship with Amparo, a girl of mixed ancestry, and meets Agliè, an elderly man who implies he is the mystical Comte de Saint-Germain. Agliè has a seemingly infinite supply of knowledge about things concerning the Occult, given his status as the Comte de Saint-Germain. While in Brazil, Casaubon receives a mysterious letter from Belbo, concerning how he went to a meeting of occultists and once more ran into the Colonel's mysterious plan, recited by a young woman who was apparently in trance. Casaubon and Amparo later break their ties after an occult experience. Ilê Axé Iya Nassô Oká - Terreiro da Casa Branca Candomblé is an Afro-American religion practiced chiefly in Brazil but also in adjacent countries. ... Lukumí, Regla de Ocha or Afro-Cuba, most widely known as Santeria, (Santería in Spanish) is a set of related religious systems that superficially seem to fuse Catholic beliefs with traditional Yorùbá beliefs. ... The Count of St Germain († February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and generally mysterious gentleman; he also had at least pretensions of alchemy. ...

On his return to Milan, Casaubon completes his thesis. He works as a researcher adept at finding connections between things; later he meets his partner, Lia, in a library, and they eventually have a son. He is hired by Belbo's boss, Mr. Garamond (his name refers to French publisher Claude Garamond), as a researcher to find illustrations for a history of metals the company is working on. Casaubon learns that as well as the respectable Garamond publishing house, Mr. Garamond also owns Manuzio (rendered "Manutius" in the English translation; inspired by Aldus Manutius), a vanity publisher that swindles incompetent authors out of large sums of money. 1480-1561, Parisian designer and maker of printing types. ... Aldus Manutius (1449/50 - February 6, 1515), the Latin form of Aldo Manuzio (born Teobaldo Mannucci) was the founder of the Aldine Press. ... This article or section should be merged with vanity press A vanity publisher is essentially a publisher for hire. ...

Garamond shortly starts two lines of occult books. One is intended for serious publication by Garamond; the other, 'Isis Unveiled', is intended to be published by Manutius and bring in more vanity authors.

Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon quickly become submerged in occult manuscripts, drawing all sorts of ridiculous connections between historical events. They engage Agliè as a specialist reader.

The three editors start to develop their version of "The Plan" as part satire and part intellectual game. Starting from Ardenti's "secret manuscript", they develop an intricate web of mystical connections – trying to avoid making any connection that has not been made before by one of their authors, who they refer to as the "Diabolicals". To help them develop this web of connections, they make use of Belbo's small personal computer/word processor, which he has nicknamed Abulafia. Belbo mainly used Abulafia for his voluminous and often-rambling personal writings (and the novel contains many excerpts of these, as Casaubon pages through its files), but as Belbo explains, it also shipped with a small program which could rearrange any typed-in lines of text, such as those of a poem, as a game/diversion. This is the program they use to create the "connections" which inspire their Plan, using it to randomly select words from the Diabolicals' manuscripts and create sentences, paragraphs, even texts long enough for book publication, though they first have to dispel the worries of Mr. Garamond. Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (born in Saragosa 1240- and d. ...

"The Plan" slowly evolves and many of its details change as the story progresses, but basically the final version involves the Knights Templar discovering secret energy flows named telluric currents during the Crusades. The telluric currents affect the geophysical movement of plate tectonics. The currents' mother lode is the so-called umbilicus mundi, or "navel of the world". By placing a special valve in the umbillicus mundi, they would be able to control the currents. This would give them the power to disturb and interfere with life anywhere on Earth, with vast blackmailing possibilities against entire nations. However, they cannot utilize the currents due to insufficient technology. A telluric current is an electric current in the Earth (both land and sea). ... This article is about the medieval crusades. ... Geophysics, the study of the earth by quantitative physical methods, especially by seismic reflection and refraction, geodesy, gravity, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, and radioactivity methods. ... Plate tectonics (from the Greek word for one who constructs and destroys, τεκτων, tektoon) is a theory of geology developed to explain the phenomenon of continental drift and is currently the theory accepted by the vast majority of scientists working in this area. ... Mother Lode is a term associated with the mining of gold. ... The Omphalos in Delphi An omphalos is a religious stone artifact in the ancient world. ... For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation). ...

The discovery is purposely hidden away and the Knights Templar trigger their own destruction, while at the same time hiding independent cells in several corners of Europe, as well as in the Middle East. Going from Ardenti's original plan, each cell is given part of the Templar "Plan" and information about the discovery. After many years of meeting at different places at distinct intervals, where the cells pass on their part of the Plan to the next one, completing it piece by piece like a puzzle, they are to reunite and rediscover the location of the umbilicus to finally exploit the telluric currents and take over the world. The crucial instruments involved in finding the location are a special map and the Foucault pendulum. Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Foucaults Pendulum in the Panthéon, Paris A Foucault pendulum, or Foucaults pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth; its action is a result of the Coriolis effect. ...

However, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar disrupts the time table and the groups lose track of each other, creating several secret societies in order to search for each other throughout history. Inscription on the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII celebrating the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar that is used nearly everywhere in the world. ...

While the Plan is total nonsense and Ardenti's text is, in all likelihood, a mundane laundry list (as Lia suggests, encouraging him to remove himself from the plan due to the effect it seems to have on him), the editors get more and more involved in it. Diotallevi is diagnosed with cancer, an incident he claimed is punishment for his deep involvement in the Plan, how they mocked something larger than them all, and Belbo retreats into the Plan to avoid confronting his personal life.

The three send Agliè their chronology of secrets societies in the Plan, as if it were from a manuscript they had been presented with. It includes Templars, Rosicrucians, Paulicians and Synarchists, but they also invent a fictional secret society, the Tres (Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici, Latin for the nonsensical "Synarchic Knights of Templar Rebirth"). The Tres is introduced in an attempt to trick Agliè, though upon reaching his office, he claims he has a vague memory of them. They believe Tres is fictional, but it was a word mentioned to Casaubon by the policeman De Angelis at a chance encounter, in which De Angelis actually inquires of Casaubon if he has ever heard of it. The Seal of the Knights — the two riders have been interpreted as a sign of poverty or the duality of monk/soldier. ... The Temple of the Rosy Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618 The Rosicrucians are a legendary and secretive order dating from the 15th or 17th century, generally associated with the symbol of the Rose Cross, which is also used in certain rituals of the Freemasons. ... Bogomils was the name of an ancient Gnostic religious community which is thought to have originated in Bulgaria. ... Synarchism (from Greek words meaning to rule together, in Spanish Sinarquismo), is the ideology of a political movement in Mexico dating from the 1930s. ... It has been suggested that History of the Latin language be merged into this article or section. ...

Then Belbo goes to Agliè and tells him about the Plan, as if it were serious research, and that he is in possession of a secret Templar map. Agliè becomes frustrated with Belbo's refusal to let him see the (non-existent) map. He sets Belbo up as a terrorist suspect in order to force him to come to Paris. It emerges that Agliè has cast himself as the head of a secret spiritual brotherhood, which includes Mr. Garamond and many of the Diabolical authors.

Casaubon follows Belbo after hearing a call for help, leading to the scene at the start of the novel. Before this, he tries to get help from De Angelis, but the brotherhood has blackmailed him into not interfering. At the appointed hour, people gather around the pendulum for an arcane ritual. During this, Casaubon sees several ectoplasmic forms appear, one of which claims to be the real Comte de Saint-Germain, discrediting Agliè in front of his followers. Belbo is brought out to be questioned. In cell biology, ectoplasm (outer plasma) refers to the outer regions of the cytoplasm of a cell. ... The Count of St Germain († February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and generally mysterious gentleman; he also had at least pretensions of alchemy. ...

Agliè's group are, or have deluded themselves to be, the Tres society in the Plan, and are angry that Belbo knows more about the Plan than they do. They try to force him to reveal the secrets he knows. Refusing to satisfy them or reveal that the Plan was a nonsensical concoction, Belbo is hanged by wire connected to the Foucault pendulum.

Casaubon then flees through the Paris sewers and the novel ends with him meditating on the events of the book, apparently waiting for the Tres to capture him.

Quotations

The book begins with a long quote in Hebrew, which comes from page seven of Philip Gruberger's book The Kabbalah: A Study of the Ten Luminous Emanations from Rabbi Isaac Luria with the Commentaries Sufficient for the Beginner Vol. II, published in Jerusalem by the Research Center of Kabbalah in 1973. The quotation translates into English as follows: Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. ... Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–July 25, 1572) was a Jewish scholar and mystic. ... Jerusalem (; Hebrew: Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds, Greek Ιεροσόλυμα), the capital of Israel, is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

When the Light of the Endless was drawn in the form of a straight line in the Void... it was not drawn and extended immediately downwards, indeed it extended slowly — that is to say, at first the Line of Light began to extend and at the very start of its extension in the secret of the Line it was drawn and shaped into a wheel, perfectly circular all around.

Each of the following 119 chapters also begin with one or two quotes, mostly from esoteric books (including one quote from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail). The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (retitled Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States) is a controversial work of fiction by authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, which was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London. ...

Commentary

Unlike most other mystery authors, Eco uses the mysterious as a background for a psychological development of the heroes (notably of Belbo, but also of Amparo in chapter "Hesed"). Amparo, being an utterly materialistic (even "marxistic") girl, undergoes crisis when presented with the Mystery. Belbo is ridden by echoes of his past "failures" (in his perception) and strife for something bigger than life.

Interestingly enough, Garamond, whose primary business is selling dreams (through his vanity press outlet), himself comes to believe the fantasy world his authors weave. A vanity press or vanity publisher is a book printer which, while claiming to be a publisher, charges writers a fee in return for publishing their books. ...

Trivia

Foucault's Pendulum has lately been called a "thinking person's The Da Vinci Code",^[1] an American fiction bestseller that it predated by over a decade. A parchment which inspires the Plan and its multiple possible interpretations (mundane or otherwise) plays a role similar to that of the parchments in the Rennes-le-Château conspiracy theories, made famous by the Code and prior to that, the The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and other similar books. However, in contrast to Brown's book, which postulates these theories as true, Eco's work is about, among other things, the futility of conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Ironically, the very phrase used to relate Eco's book to Brown's logically implies that the latter is for persons who do not think. For the movie, see The Da Vinci Code (film). ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (retitled Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States) is a controversial work of fiction by authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, which was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London. ...

References

The following are some of the secret and not-so-secret groups and beliefs appear in Foucault's Pendulum: A secret society is an organization that requires its members to conceal certain activities—such as rites of initiation —from outsiders. ...

Wiktionary, the free dictionary, has a concordance of the 'difficult' words from Foucault's Pendulum

• The Knights Templar (the main players)
• The Rosicrucians
• The Gnostics
• The Freemasons
• The Bavarian Illuminati
• The Elders of Zion
• The Assassins of Alamut
• The Cabalists
• The Cathars
• The Jesuits

The following are actually not involved with the Plan: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ... for other uses, see concordance. ... This article is about the medieval military order. ... The Temple of the Rosy Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618 The Rosicrucians are a legendary and secretive order dating from the 15th or 17th century, generally associated with the symbol of the Rose Cross, which is also used in certain rituals of the Freemasons. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... This is an article about groups called the Illuminati. For information on the games, see Illuminati (game) and Illuminati: New World Order. ... 1992 Russian edition of the Protocols, adapting Eliphas Levis portrayal of Baphomet. ... The Hashshashin (also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins) had a militant basis as a religious sect (often referred to as a cult) of Ismaili Muslims from the Nizari sub-sect. ... The remains of the fabled Alamut castle. ... Kabbala may refer to; Kabbala Village, in the Karnataka State of India Kabbalah, is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ... Cathars being expelled from Carcassone in 1209. ... The Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu (S.I. or S.J.) in Latin) is a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in direct service to the Pope. ...

• Panta Rei
• Candomblé
• Opus Dei (mentioned in passing)

Ilê Axé Iya Nassô Oká - Terreiro da Casa Branca Candomblé is an Afro-American religion practiced chiefly in Brazil but also in adjacent countries. ... Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Founder of Opus Dei: Work is the way to contribute to the progress of society; even more, it is a way to holiness. ...

The text of "the Plan"

• The original text is in fourteenth-century French ("..." indicates illegible text due to decay:)

a la . . . Saint Jean

36 p charrete de fein

6 . . . entiers avec saiel

p . . . les blancs mantiax

r . . . s . . . chevaliers de Pruins pour la . . . j . nc.

6 foil 6 en 6 places

chascune foil 20 a . . . 720 a . . .

iceste est l'ordonation

al donjon it premiers

it li secunz joste iceus qui . . . pans

it al refuge

it a Nostre Dame de l'altre pan de l'iau

it a l'ostel des popelicans

it a la pierre

3 foiz 6 avant la feste . . . to Grant Pute.

• Colonel Ardenti reconstructs and translates the text thus, as a secret plan:

THE (NIGHT OF) SAINT JOHN

36 (YEARS) P(OST) HAY WAIN

6 (MESSAGES) INTACT WITH SEAL

F(OR THE KNIGHTS WITH) THE WHITE CLOAKS [TEMPLARS]

R(ELAP)S(I) OF PROVINS FOR (VAIN)JANCE [REVENGE]

6 TIMES 6 IN SIX PLACES

EACH TIME 20 Y(EARS MAKES) 120 Y(EARS)

THIS IS THE PLAN

THE FIRST GO TO THE CASTLE

IT(ERUM) [AGAIN AFTER 120 YEARS] THE SECOND JOIN THOSE (OF THE) BREAD

AGAIN TO THE REFUGE

AGAIN TO OUR LADY BEYOND THE RIVER

AGAIN TO THE HOSTEL OF THE POPELICANS

AGAIN TO THE STONE

3 TIMES 6 [666] BEFORE THE FEAST (OF THE) GREAT WHORE.

• Using a tourist guidebook, Lia, Casaubon's partner, reconstructs and translates it thus, as a merchant's list of the day's orders (The reader who knows French will hopefully understand the irony):

In Rue Saint Jean:

36 sous for wagons of hay.

Six new lengths of cloth with seal

to rue des Blancs-Manteaux.

Crusaders’ roses to make a jonchee:

six bunches of six in the six following places,

each 20 deniers, making 120 deniers in all.

Here is the order:

the first to the Fort

item the second to those in Porte-aux-Pains

item to the Church of the Refuge

item to the Church of Notre–Dame, across the river

item to the old building of the Cathars (another name for Popelicans)

item to rue de la Pierre-Ronde.

And three bunches of six before the feast, in the whores’ street.

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Foucault's Pendulum

• wiktionary:Concordance:Foucault's Pendulum
• List of esoteric subjects in Foucault's Pendulum
• The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... This is a list of obscure subjects mentioned in Foucaults Pendulum. ... Arturo Pérez-Revertes novel The Club Dumas, published in 1998, is set in a world of antiquarian booksellers echoing his previous work, The Flanders Panel. ... Spanish stamp (2002) tribute to Captain Alatriste Arturo Pérez-Reverte (b. ... Cover of the collected edition The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. ...

Notes

2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ...

External links

• List of Eco's fiction with short introductions
• Digital Illustrations based on the book