Angels and Demons: Encyclopedia - Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons (2000) is a mystery novel by Dan Brown, featuring the character Robert Langdon, who is also the principal character of his subsequent, better-known novel The Da Vinci Code. The story involves a conflict between an ancient group, the Illuminati, and the Catholic Church. It is credited with being the first novel to contain ambigrams.

Angels and Demons - Main characters

• Robert Langdon: Protagonist, symbologist, professor
• Vittoria Vetra: CERN physicist, Leonardo's adopted daughter
• Leonardo Vetra: Murder victim, CERN physicist, priest
• Maximilian Kohler: Director of CERN
• Commander Olivetti: Head of the Swiss Guard
• Captain Elias Rocher: Member of the Swiss Guard; assistant of Commander Olivetti.
• The Hasassin: Killer hired by the Illuminati
• Carlo Ventresca: Camerlengo (Papal Chamberlain)
• Saverio Cardinal Mortati: Member of the College of Cardinals and participant in the papal election
• Gunther Glick: BBC reporter
• Chinita Macri: Glick's videographer
• Lieutenant Chartrand: Member of the Swiss Guard

Angels and Demons - Plot

Angels and Demons features Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon, as he tries to stop the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying the Vatican City with the newly-discovered power of antimatter.

CERN researcher, Leonardo Vetra, is found murdered in his secured, private quarters at the research facility. On his chest is branded a symbol — the word "Illuminati", formed as an ambigram. After researching the Internet, Director Maximillian Kohler contacts Professor Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati who has written a book on the subject, and requests his assistance in uncovering the murderer.

What Langdon discovers at the murder scene frightens him: the symbol appears to be authentic, and the legendary secret society, long thought to be defunct, seems to have resurfaced. The Illuminati has also appropriated CERN's supply of antimatter, the ultimate weapon, and has its sights on fulfilling a centuries-old dream: to destroy Vatican City.

Time runs short as Langdon and Vetra's adopted daughter, Vittoria, race to stop not only the Vatican's destruction, but to save the lives of four cardinals who have been kidnapped by a deadly assassin.

Angels and Demons - Similarities to Brown's other books

There are many elements in Angels and Demons that are similar to elements in Brown's other books

Angels and Demons - Common to two books

These elements are common between The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons

• Main character Langdon is teamed with a beautiful, highly intelligent woman who is the daughter of the murder victim.
• The prominent assassin of the book (the Hassassin in Angels and Demons and Silas in The Da Vinci Code) commits the murders under the impression that he is doing so for an organisation which is apparently behind the murders, but turns out to be actually framed for them (the Illuminati in Angels and Demons and Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code).
• Both prominent assassins in both books have features distinctive from other characters in the story (the Hassassin is an Arab and Silas an albino).
• At one point along the way, Langdon makes a mistake whilst following the trail of clues and is directed to the wrong place.
• Each book has a prominent cripple -- Maximilian Kohler and Sir Leigh Teabing. Both use this to their advantage by bringing revolvers to meetings with the camerlengo or Langdon/Neveu, respectively, and escaping metal detectors because of their conditions.
• In both, a message is written on papyrus-based paper. This is later destroyed when the paper comes into contact with vinegar and water.

Angels and Demons - Elements that are common to all four of Brown's books

These are in The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress

• All events in each book take place during the course of approximately 24 hours
• The primary male character is always a scholar of some sort.
• A key character in each book (such as Maximilian Kohler and Bezu Fache) is portrayed in such a way that the reader would suspect them to have masterminded the killings, until the revelation takes place
• The mastermind behind the killings turns out to be a salient figure for most of the book, and supposedly against the motives behind the murders. The camerlengo, for example, is thought to be against the existence of the Illuminati, while Sir Leigh Teabing's motives appear to be parallel to those of the Priory of Sion
• The main character (Langdon) and the female protagonist end the story with the implication of a sexual relationship, though details are not given

Angels and Demons - Facts and mythology behind the book

• Illuminati, secret brotherhood at heart of book
• Lockheed Martin X-33
• CERN
• Freemasonry, secret society which Illuminati supposedly merged into
• Henry A. Wallace, U.S. Vice President & alleged Mason who caused Illuminati symbol to be included on U.S. 1 Dollar Bill
• Altars of Science

Angels and Demons - The Altars of Science

The Altars of Science consist of four locations, each representing the four elements— earth, air, fire and water— which are believed to be "the Path of Illumination," a trail to the meeting place of the Illuminati in Rome.

The "altars" were hidden as religious artwork in order to avoid the wrath of the Vatican and secure the secrecy of the Illuminati. The artworks that make up the Four Altars were all sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Though no one is sure where exactly the meeting place was, there is speculation that it was the famed Castel Sant'Angelo.

Most believe that the artworks are:

• Air– The cherub fresco underneath the Obelisk at Saint Peter's Square
• Fire– The Ecstasy of St Theresa at the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria
• Water– The famous Fountain of Four Rivers at Piazza Navona
• Earth– Habakkuk and the Angel in Chigi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo

The existence of the Altars of Science has been debated among some historians, although evidence of their existence is still visible in Rome today.

Obelisk in Saint Peter's Square, Altar of Air

Fountain of Four Rivers, Altar of Water

Angels and Demons - Factual inaccuracies

In the beginning of the book, Brown claims that "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. The brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual." The book includes factual inaccuracies in diverse areas, as with most fiction. Despite Brown specifying the limits of his novel's factual accuracy, some readers have objected to other areas of information being misleading, in part based on the public comments made by the author and also due to the style of writing, (for example, characters making expositions on their areas of expertise). The acknowledgement of organisations including CERN in the writing of the book gives the impression of the facts being supplied or reviewed by those organisations. CERN felt it appropriate to provide some scientific corrections to the book (see below).

Some inventions, such as a mistranslation of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" and a flawed depiction of the Council of Nicea, may have given readers misleading impressions of historical events. In some cases, the book may have encouraged their belief in conspiracy theories that are unsupported by evidence.

According to Brown, Galileo founded the Illuminati in order to spread scientific knowledge that the Church attempted to suppress. In reality, there is no evidence to suggest that Galileo was associated with any of the incarnations of the Illuminati (the most famous, the Bavarian Illuminati, was founded more than a century after his death).

Brown made errors in the areas in which he promised factual accuracy. For example:

• Brown asserts that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a Roman Catholic, when in fact he was a non-practicing Anglican. Also, British Gunther Glick and Marci have merely 'heard of' Winston Churchill, who is a very famous figure in Britain and is very well known.
• How did the Christians come to know about 'god-eating' from the Aztecs when Christianity is 2000 years old and Christians and Aztecs did not come into contact until 1519?
• In examining the body of the previous Pope, the Swiss Guard simply slides back the marble top of the tomb and they checks the Pope's tongue. In fact, Popes are buried in three nested coffins, which would have made this task somewhat more difficult.
• Dan Brown claims that "Bernini's city-wide cross of obelisks marked the fortress in perfect Illuminati fashion; the cross’s central arm passed directly through the center of the castle’s bridge, dividing it into two equal halves." In fact, neither of the two arms of the cross go through the Castel Sant'Angelo.

Angels and Demons - The All Seeing Eye

In Angels and Demons, it's stated that the all seeing eye is insignificant to the US. But on the bottom of the pyramid it's written "1776" in Roman numerals.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Angels and Demons", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki