[the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say
things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal
trouble] Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published
in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide. The book
mixes a small spice of fact into a large dollop of fiction to
create an entertaining novel of intrigue, adventure, romance,
danger and conspiracy, which have been imaginatively worked
together to cook up the successful bestseller. Most interest in the
book's origins has centred on the sensational religious aspects.
Dan Brown has written: 'All of the art, architecture, secret
rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact.' This
gives an air of authenticity to the book. Brown has, however, made
up the religious doctrines, or based them on questionable accounts
by others. The locations of the actions of The Da Vinci Code are
not, however, made up. The present book is the scientific story
behind the scene of several of the book's actions that take place
on the axis of France that passes through Paris. The Paris Meridian
is the name of this location. It is the line running north-south
through the astronomical observatory in Paris. One of the original
intentions behind the founding of the Paris Observatory was to
determine and measure this line. The French government financed the
Paris Academy of Sciences to do so in the seventeenth to nineteenth
centuries. It employed both astronomers - people who study and
measure the stars - and geodesists - people who study and measure
the Earth. This book is about what they did and why. It is a true
story behind Dan Brown's fiction. This is the first English
language presentation of this historical material. It is
attractively written and it features the story of the community of
scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They knew each other
well - some were members of the same families, in one case of four
generations. Like scientists everywhere they collaborated and
formed alliances; they also split into warring factions and
squabbled. They travelled to foreign countries, somehow
transcending the national and political disputes, as scientists do
now, their eyes fixed on ideas of accuracy, truth and objective,
enduring values - save where the reception given to their own work
is concerned, when some became blind to high ideals and descended
into petty politics. To establish the Paris Meridian, the
scientists endured hardship, survived danger and gloried in amazing
adventures during a time of turmoil in Europe, the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic War between France and Spain. Some
were accused of witchcraft. Some of their associates lost their
heads on the guillotine. Some died of disease. Some won honour and
fame. One became the Head of State in France, albeit for no more
than a few weeks. Some found dangerous love in foreign countries.
One scientist killed in self defence when attacked by a jealous
lover, another was himself killed by a jealous lover, a third
brought back a woman to France and then jilted her, whereupon she
joined a convent. The scientists worked on practical problems of
interest to the government and to the people. They also worked on
one of the important intellectual problems of the time, a problem
of great interest to their fellow scientists all over the world,
nothing less than the theory of universal gravitation. They
succeeded in their intellectual work, while touching politics and
the affairs of state. Their endeavours have left their marks on the
landscape, in art and in literature.
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