Deciphering Da Vinci's Real Codes

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INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL

Deciphering Da Vinci’s Real Codes

he quintessential Renais- word Sangreal is explained not as sance man, with personas san greal, “holy grail,” but as sang ranging from architect to real, “royal blood,” revealing that T 1 zoologist, Leonardo da Vinci was Jesus married Mary Magdalene also something of a cryptographer, and fathered a child, thus begin- and much attention has been given ning a bloodline that led to the his various “codes”2—both real and Merovingian dynasty (a succes- imagined, the latter most famously sion of kings who ruled present- in Dan Brown’s popular mystery day France from 481 to 751). novel, The Da Vinci Code (2003). The hoaxed parchments, Les Dossiers Secrets, provided evi- Da Vinci’s ‘Codes’ dence of this allegedly historically Although The Da Vinci Code is fic- guarded secret. tion, Brown claimed portions were Picknett and Prince claim, for based on fact, notably that a secret instance, that St. John, depicted society called the Priory of Sion in The Last Supper and seated at was “a real organization” founded the right of Jesus, is actually a in 1099 and that parchments woman—Mary Magdalene—and brought to light in 1975, Les that the shape made by “Mary” Dossiers Secrets, named among its and Jesus is “a giant, spreadea- members Leonardo da Vinci (2003, gled ‘M,’ almost as if they were 1). Alas, the parchments “were literally joined at the hip but had conclusively proven in the 1990s Figure 1. Drawn and written in mirror fashion is Leonardo da suffered a falling out or even Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man of 1490—representing grown apart” (Picknett and Prince to have been part of an elaborate Renaissance ideals of humanism and harmonious proportion hoax” (Bernstein 2004, 9). (after the works of first century B.C.Roman engineer 1998, 19–21). In this and some The hoax had snookered the Vitruvius). (Reproduced from Richter 1883.) of the artist’s other works, the authors of two pseudohistories, both “an innovative technique” (Leo- authors imagine, are hidden clues Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Baigent et al. nardo, they suggest, invented photogra- to an underground religion based on 1996) and The Templar Revelation phy to create the image!) and “an the sang real secret. (Picknett and Prince 1998), on which encoded heretical belief” (he supposedly By following such ridiculous sources, Brown relied. The coauthors of The faked blood on the image as still flowing Brown provokes one critic to observe Te m p l a r Re ve l a t i o n , “researchers” Lynn so as to indicate that Jesus did not die on that his characterizations “bear little Picknett and Clive Prince, had made a the cross) (Picknett and Prince 1998, resemblance to the serious thinking in previous foray into nonsense (1994) 25, 289). the field” of Leonardo studies and reveal with the claim that Leonardo had cre- For his novel, Brown borrowed from “a stunning lack of careful knowledge” ated the Shroud of Turin, even though a chapter of The Templar Revelation about his subject (Bernstein 2004, 12). the shroud appeared a century before titled “The Secret Code of Leonardo da the birth of Leonardo (1452–1519). Vinci.” There, Picknett and Prince The duo believe the image on the cloth (1998, 19–35) claim that Leonardo’s Joe Nickell, Ph.D., is the author of numer- (actually the work of a confessed forger famous fresco The Last Supper contains ous books, including Pen, Ink, & Evidence of the mid-1350s [Nickell 1998])—was hidden symbolism relating to the true and Unsolved History. His Web site is at produced for two reasons. It represented Holy Grail. Supposedly the old French www.joenickell.com.

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Cryptex codes and ciphers to disguise his ideas Most knowledgeable authorities now In The Da Vinci Code, the hero and further” (White 2000, 131). Spe- attribute the backward penmanship to heroine follow a series of cryptic clues to cifically, it has been pointed out “that in Leonardo’s having been left-handed. The solve the mystery. At the beginning, very specific circumstances Leonardo earliest testimony of that fact comes some numbers are discovered scribbled would invent code writing (for exam- from his close friend and collaborator, on the floor beside the body of the mur- ple, in the so-called Ligny memoran- Fra Luca Pacioli (ca. 1445–ca. 1514), dered Jacques Saunier. Heroine Sophie dum of about 1499, recording the who stated that Leonardo “wrote in Neveu, Saunier’s granddaughter, hap- artist’s journey to Rome with the count reverse, [his script] is left-handed and pens to be a “cryptographer” (actually a of Ligny).” As well, he “created playful could not be read except with a mirror or cryptanalyst, one who solves, rather than rebuses and cryptic pictographs” by holding the back of the sheet against creates, secret writings). She recognizes (Bambach 2003, 33). the light. As I understand, and can say, the numbers as a scrambled Fibonacci For a time, when he feared two this is the practice of our Leonardo da sequence (a mathematical progression German assistants were spying on him, Vinci, lantern of painting, who is left- derived by another Leonardo, Leonardo his writings reflect anxiety and “are handed” (qtd. in Bambach 2003, 32). Fibonacci [ca. 1170–ca. 1240]) and it written not only in his usual mirror- The right-to-left mode would have enables her and her fellow quester, writing but heavily encoded, with been an advantage to a left-handed “symbologist” Robert Langdon, to imagery more at home in alchemical writer, since otherwise the hand would unlock a safe box in a Zurich bank. texts than his notebooks” (White 2000, trail over and smear the wet ink (unless Inside they discover a cryptex, a device 250). Iris Noble (1965, 139) has sug- its position or that of the paper was rad- whose invention is attributed to Leo- gested that his treatise De Figura ically altered). Having chosen to write in nardo da Vinci. However, not only did Umana (On the Human Figure) was so reverse fashion, Leonardo would no he not conceive the imagined gadget but, “dangerous” in exploring anatomy even doubt have enjoyed its fringe benefits: as Brown describes it, it would not work. through dissections of corpses that “He its difficulty of being deciphered by Supposedly it contains a scroll that can wrote it in mirror language because he casual readers, and the attention he only be gained by lining up its dials cor- knew well that times would have to gained from the novelty of performing rectly; smashing it open will break a change before that book could be such a trick. phial of vinegar that will “quickly dis- printed for all to see.” Another Possibility? solve the papyrus,” so that “By the time But is that really the case? Leonardo anyone extracted the secret message,” definitely intended that book—along Over the years (by 1983), I had begun Sophie explains, “it would be a glob of with many other treatises in progress— to wonder if Leonardo might have meaningless pulp” (Brown 2003, 201). for publication. And as one writer received another benefit from his mir- In fact, vinegar has no such effect on observes, “the labor of writing backward ror-writing. I was intrigued that there is papyrus, which—since I am quite famil- would surely have been out of all pro- an important art form that actually uti- iar with that writing material (Nickell portion to the secrecy value, since the lizes mirror-writing and drawing; 1990, 71)—I already knew instinctively; script could be read by anyone with a indeed, it is one that Leonardo would however, in honor of Leonardo, I con- mirror” (Linscott 1957, xiii). Besides, have been very familiar with. In fact, firmed that by a simple experiment in Leonardo copied much extraneous and while there is no clear evidence that he my lab. There was no appreciable affect innocuous material into his notebooks practiced that art himself, he is known even after weeks. in backward script, including portions to have made the preliminary draw- of a Latin grammar, various quotations, ings—for another such practicing artist ‘Code’ Script even jokes (Linscott 1957, xiii). to copy—to illustrate his friend Pacioli’s In Brown’s tale, the rosewood box con- Others have suggested that the mir- treatise De Divina Proportione (On taining the cryptex also yields an ror-writings could be due to dyslexia Divine Proportion) (White 2000, 153). engraved riddle, itself rendered in a baf- (Priwer and Phillips 2005, 210); how- The art I am referring to is that of fling script that is finally recognized as ever, the fluency of their exposition and printmaking—either by engraving or mirror writing. That backward form was elegance of reasoning as well as their woodcut. To make prints, the respective employed by Leonardo throughout his quantity and even the stylish calligraphy copper plate or wood block is carved celebrated notebooks (see figure 1). of some early notes are scarcely consis- (incised for the former, cut in relief for People have long puzzled over his reason tent with such a diagnosis. Moreover, the latter) in reverse (Nickell 1992). for so writing, one popular hypothesis Leonardo was apparently also to some Thus, the plate is a mirror image of the being “to keep people from peering over extent ambidextrous and could employ print it makes. his shoulder and stealing his ideas,” conventional, left-to-right script when Since Leonardo intended his works to notes Brown (2003, 301). Indeed some necessary, as in writing letters. That has be published, might not he have taken have even called it a code, a possibility been disputed, but now the scholarly advantage of his left-handed ability to supposedly made more credible by consensus is that occasionally he did do write in reverse in order to assist future Leonardo’s having “often employed so (Bambach 2003, 33, 44). mirror-writing artisans in copying his

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text? Although many books of his time human skull, begun in 1489, that of my Leonardo mirror-writing-for-engrav- were set in moveable type (following its “reveal a neat, treatiselike disposition of ing hypothesis, and CFI Libraries Director introduction ca. 1450 and its first use in image and text on the page (as well as Timothy Binga, for research assistance. Italy in 1465 [Nickell 1990, 127]), the technique of exquisitely fine parallel Notes woodcuts and engravings were still also hatching that is typical of engravings 1. At least, Leonardo did architectural draw- common. Engraved copper plates could from this period)” (Bambach 2003, 15). ings (and was an occasional architectural consul- have seemed an ideal method of repro- Were Leonardo’s pages of this type tant), and he studied animals, sketching their form and movements, visiting slaughterhouses to ducing Leonardo’s pages with their inter- actual models for a future engraver? observe still-beating hearts, studying the flights of woven illustrations and text. Might he have at least been aware of his birds, etc. (Phillips and Priwer 2006, 103–116, One immediately thinks of argu- mirror-writing’s utility in this regard? 190–191, 126–127). ments for and against this hypothesis, 2. Although the term code is often used very ... Or Not? loosely, cryptanalysts distinguish between a code but serious investigators learn to avoid (where arbitrary symbols, words, etc., stand for drawing firm conclusions too quickly. (I Clearly there is a similarity between, on certain whole concepts, such as words, phrases, or the one hand, certain of Leonardo’s the like) and a cipher (in which letters of the “plain- frequently encounter people who are text” are transformed—by substitution or transpo- such bright, quick thinkers that they pages that were apparently intended for sition—to conceal its meaning). finish my sentences for me—often publication, and, on the other, the 3. See the illustrated short treatise on “Secret engraved copper plate that could have Writing” in my book, Pen, Ink, & Evidence incorrectly. Over time, I have been try- (Nickell 1990, 176–178); see also my deciphering to teach myself to think more slowly, reproduced them as conventional (non- ment of the Oak Island mystery’s cipher-stone text that is, more carefully.) I approached the reversed) pages to be read by others. and symbol-ridden allegory (Nickell 2001, puzzle of Leonardo’s “code” writing as if Even if it was just a coincidence, Leo- 219–234). nardo must have noticed and appreci- (and I have had some experience in this References 3 ated the fact of the similarity. regard ) I were solving a cryptogram. Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry In the notebooks, not only is As I studied the matter, I realized the Lincoln. 1996. Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Leonardo’s text reversed but apparently need to find among Leonardo’s fig- London: Arrow. ures—that is, among those that were Bambach, Carmen C., ed. 2003. Leonardo Da drawings are as well, some diagrams Vinci: Master Draftsman. New Haven, Conn.: being so indicated by the fact that their seemingly intended for publication— Yale University Press. sequential letters—a, b, c, etc.—run one or more that were unmistakably Bernstein, Amy D. 2004. Decoding the Da Vinci from right to left (see, e.g., illus. in mirror-imaged. phenomenon. In Secrets of the Da Vinci Code, What I found, however, placed me in collector’s edition, U.S. News and World Bambach 2003, 598). Moreover, Report, 7–15. Carmen C. Bambach (2003, 51), cura- the unfortunate position of having to Brown, Dan. 2003. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday. tor of Drawings and Prints at the debunk, or at least urge skepticism of, my own hypothesis. It came in the form Leonardo da Vinci. 1956. New York: Reynal & Metropolitan Museum of Art, observes Company. of a drawing of 1490 that “may have that the evidence indicates Leonardo Nickell, Joe. 1990. Pen, Ink & Evidence: A Study of been intended to illustrate a treatise on Writing and Writing Materials for the Penman, was a “‘natural’ left-hander” and that anatomy” (Bambach 2003, 409). Collector, and Document Detective. Reprinted, He had an uncanny mental ability to New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. Labeled the “tree of veins” and illustrat- ———. 1992. The techniques of printed illustra- reverse, as if in a mirror, both writing ing internal organs in a pioneering cut- tion. In Martin F. Schmidt, Kentucky and images fluently; not all left- away view of a male figure, it places the Illustrated, Lexington, Kentucky: University handed artists have this ability. Pre- Press of Kentucky, 1992, 3–4. liminary drawings show that he seems heart on the figure’s left, that is, in non- ———. 1998. Inquest on the Shroud of Turin. often to have tried out mirror images reversed fashion. The same is true of a Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. of a similar compositional idea, per- 1508 anatomical drawing of a female, ———. 2001. Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the haps to stir up his creative juices in and still others (White 2000, 284; Paranormal. Lexington, Kentucky: University designing the figural arrangements of Press of Kentucky. Leonardo 1956, 369, 371, 377). Phillips, Cynthia, and Shana Priwer. 2006. The his pictures. This unusual, very This seems clear evidence against my Everything Da Vinci Book. Avon, Massachu- prominent feature of his creative otherwise very intriguing hypothesis. setts: Adams Media. process has been little discussed by Picknett, Lynn, and Clive Prince. 1994. Turin scholars. Of course, there may be something in Shroud: In Whose Image? The Truth behind the the idea after all. At least, it might Centuries-Long Conspiracy of Silence. New Although Leonardo put little of his inspire others to take a fresh look at York: HarperCollins. material in final order, he did keep most ———. 1998. The Templar Revelation: Secret Leonardo’s great gifts to us. Perhaps, Guardians of the True Identity of Christ. New of his observations to a single page, not- avoiding the silliness of the pseudohis- York: Touchstone. ing carefully if they were continued torians who have abused and slandered Priwer, Shana, and Cynthia Phillips. 2005. 101 (Richter 1883, xv). Of course, not all of Things You Didn’t Know About Da Vinci. Avon, him, they will decode some further Massachusetts: Adams Media. his scattered pages were intended for secrets of his genius. Richter, Jean Paul. 1883. The Notebooks of publication; some were simply sketches Leonardo Da Vinci: Compiled and Edited from and drawings per se, while others bore Acknowledgments the Original Manuscripts, in two vols.; reprinted New York: Dover Publications, 1970. mundane notations and reminders. Yet I appreciate the assistance of artist/art scholar White, Michael. 2000. Leonardo: The First some were like a set of studies of the Glenn Taylor, who made helpful criticisms Scientist. New York: St. Martin’s Press. !

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