Index

Abraham (Biblical figure), 2, 131
absolute, 262; ambiguity of term, 74; beauty as substitute for, 80–81; identification with God, 74–75; meaning of, 73, 75–81; poets and, 79–80; in positivism, 86; truth and, 81, 81–85. See also relative; sacred; truth
Absolute Knowledge (Magritte), 73
abstract art, 40
Accademia d’Italia, 17
Accetto, Torquato, 177–178, 224
Achilles, 147–148
advertisements, 20–21
Aesop, 50–51
aesthetic, Hisperic, 4–5
aesthetic detachment, 42–44, 47
aesthetic ecstasy, 116–117, 117
Aesthetic of Ugliness (Rosenkrantz), 45
aesthetics, classical, 5
aesthetics of ruins, 202–203
À La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Proust), 28
Albertus Magnus, 34
alchemical fire, 109–112
Aldhelm of Malmesbury, 5
aletheia, 171. See also truth
Alexander the Great, 10
Allen, Woody, 141
Almirante, Giorgio, 57
Alphonsus Liguori, Saint, 107
AMORC (Anticus et mysticus ordo rosae crucis), 229
Anatomy of Melancholy, The (Burton), 71–72
ancestors / ancients, 9–11, 13–14. See also history; past; shoulders of giants
ancients. See ancestors / ancients
Andronikos, 48–49
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 130, 131. See also Karenina, Anna (fictional character)
Anselm of Aosta, 9
Anselm of Canterbury, Saint, 78
Antichrist, 54
anti-globalization movement, 18–19
antinomies, 145–150
anti-relativists, 93
Antonello da Messina, 39
aphorisms. See maxims / aphorisms
apocrypha, 187–188
Apologia della menzogna (Battista), 177
Apparition, The (Redon), 26
Apuleius, 10
Aquinas, Thomas, 9, 11, 19, 25, 33, 34, 81, 84, 92, 176, 264; on beauty, 30–31, 41–42, 197; on resurrection, 197–198; on ugliness, 45
Arcadian Shepherds, The (Poussin), 258
archetypes, 218–219
Arendt, Hannah, 193–194
Aristarchus of Samos, 171
Aristotle / Aristotelian tradition, 8, 9, 15, 147–148, 184; beauty and, 34; fire and, 102; sign in, 264; on ugliness, 47
art: fire as cause of, 112–115; imperfection in, 201–224; ugliness in, 51, 57–62
Arthur (king), 10
Artist’s Shit (Manzoni), 70
Art Nouveau, 68
Art of Love, The (Ovid), 3
Art of Worldly Wisdom, The (Gracián), 178
Ascent of Mount Carmel, The (John of the Cross), 269–271
Asclepius, 190
Asmodeus, 258–259
Astor, John Jacob, 249
atomic bomb, 121–122
attractiveness, 200–201
Augustine, Saint, 11, 25, 51, 92, 175, 198, 264, 265
Aulus Gellius, 149
authenticity, 186–187; judgments of, 192; proof of, 190–192
authority, 10–11
Auto da fé (Canetti), 120
avant-garde art, 40, 41; Boldini, 68; ugliness in, 65–67
Averroës, 92

Babel, tower of, 6
Bachelard, Gaston, 99, 100–101
Bacon, Francis, 174
bad faith, 182–183
Báez, Fernando, 121
bagatelle, 176
Bagatelles pour un massacre (Céline), 55
Baigent, Michael, 259, 260–261
Baillet, Adrien, 230
ballet, 69
barber paradox, 148–149
Barbey d’Aurevilly, Jules, 26–27, 59
Baroque era: descriptions of hell in, 107–108; lies in, 176–179; secrets in, 224–225
Barruel, Augustin, 234, 248
Battista, Giuseppe, 177
Baudelaire, Charles, 63
beauty, 25–44, 34; in Christianity, 51; of consumption, 41; criteria for, 27–38, 35, 197 (see also light / claritas; proportion); detachment and, 47; disinterest and, 42–44; as element of virtue, 31; evidence for ideals of, 27–29; of fire, 103; vs. good, 42; in historical periods, 27–29; identified with goodness, 50; integrity and, 35; medieval ideas of, 104; moral, 31; proposed by mass media, 41; relativity of, 39, 43; as substitute for absolute, 80–81; uncertainties concerning definition of, 25; of Venice, 117. See also sublime
Being and Nothingness (Sartre), 182–183
Benedict XVI (pope), 236, 237. See also Ratzinger, Joseph
Bergman, Ingrid, 216
Berlusconi, Silvio, 74
Bernard, Saint, 37, 43
Bernard of Chartres, 11, 12, 13
bestiaries, 35, 36
Betrothed, The (Manzoni), 128
Bettetini, Maria, 170
Bhagavad-Gita, 122
black Americans, fascists’ description of, 54–55
Boethius, 29–30
Bogart, Humphrey, 218
Böhme, Jakob, 271
Boldini, Giovanni, 68
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 172
Bonaventure, Saint, 9, 19, 35, 47, 105
Bond villains, 61–62
Book of the Frenzied Devotee’s Desire to Learn About the Riddles of Ancient Scripts (Nabati), 223
books, burning of, 120–121
Bosch, Hieronymus, 39
Botticelli, Sandro, 27
Bovary, Emma (fictional character), 133, 135–136, 140–141, 144
Bové, José, 18
Bradbury, Ray, 121
Breve storia della bugia (Bettetini), 170
Broch, Hermann, 67
Brown, Dan, 238, 250, 254–255, 260. See also Da Vinci Code, The (Brown)
Brown, Fredric, 70
Brunelleschi, Umberto, 136
Bruno, Giordano, 74
Buddha, 122–123
Burke, Edmund, 38–39
Burton, Robert, 71–72

Cagliostro, 231
camp, 68–69
Canetti, Elias, 120
Capet, Louis (Louis XVI, king of France), 15
Carbonari, 230
Carcass, The (Baudelaire), 63
Carducci, Giosuè, 16
Casablanca (film), 216–219
Casanova, Giacomo, 232
Catullus, 3
Celestial Hierarchy (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite), 32, 79, 103–104
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand, 55
Cellini, Benvenuto, 114
Chamfort, Nicolas de, 152
change, 94–95. See also innovation
Chapman, George, 218
Charcot, Jean-Martin, 276
Chateaubriand, Francois-Rene de, 202–203
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith, 261
Chiesa, Giuletto, 245
Chomsky, Noam, 253
Chopin, Frédéric, 209
Christianity: beauty in, 51; dwarfs-giants metaphor and, 14; fire in, 106–108; history and, 14; representations of God, 267–268; ugliness in, 51–52. See also God
churches: Gothic, 32; ornamentation in, 37
Cicero, 151
cities, modern, 62–63
claritas. See light / claritas
Clement of Alexandria, 26
clichés, 219
climate change, 122
codes, 223–224
cognitive relativism, 85
Coleridge, Samuel, 179
color: Middle Ages and, 32; sense of, 104
Commandments, 173
Commentaries on Priscian (William of Conches), 12
Commentary on the Celestial Hierarchy (Eriugena), 105
Commentary on the Sentences (Bonaventure of Bagnoregio), 105
commonplaces, reversed, 166–167
communism, 74
computers, generations and, 21
Conan Doyle, Arthur, 128, 133. See also Holmes, Sherlock (fictional character)
Confessio fraternitatis Roseae crucis. Ad eruditos Europae, 228
confidentiality, right to, 225
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Ratzinger), 91
Conjectures and Refutations (Popper), 247–248
consensus, 93
conspiracy, 234–236, 243–261; psychology of, 248, 251–253; real, 243. See also Da Vinci Code, The (Brown); 9 / 11; Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Conspiracy (Pipes), 248
conspiracy syndrome, 235–236, 251–253; The Da Vinci Code and, 250–251; 9 / 11 and, 244–245
conspiracy theory, 244; The Da Vinci Code, 250–251, 254–255; difficulty of keeping secrets and, 246; Jesuits and, 249–250; Lincoln-Kennedy assasinations, 253–254; 9 / 11 and, 253, 254; proof of silence, 245; Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 188–189, 234, 247, 248; Rennes-le-Château, 255–261; techniques used to prove and justify, 253–255; Titanic, 249–250
conspiracy theory of society, 246–248
Constant, Benjamin, 175
consumption, beauty of, 41
Contre-enquete sur la morte d’Emma Bovary (Doumenc), 133
Contro-dolore, Il (Palazzeschi), 65–66
Contro il relativismo (Jervis), 90
Copernican hypothesis, 15
Corbu, Noël, 256
counterfeiting, 183–189
Count of Monte Cristo, The (Dumas), 127, 210–214
Croce, Benedetto, 178, 204–206
crocodile dilemma, 149–150
Cromwell (Hugo), 59
cryptographies, 223–224
cultural relativism, 88–91
cult works, 215–219
Cuore (De Amicis), 54
Curtiz, Michael, 216, 217
Cyrano di Bergerac (film), 135

D’Annunzio, Gabriel, 117, 120
Dante Alighieri, 10, 209, 215; language and, 7–8; light in work of, 104–105; need for Virgil, 9; portrayal of hell, 106–107; powerlessness expressed by, 78–79. See also Divine Comedy (Dante); Inferno (Dante); Paradiso (Dante)
Dantès, Edmond (fictional character), 127. See also Count of Monte Cristo, The (Dumas)
Darwin, Charles, 16, 46
Da Vinci Code, The (Brown), 238, 250–251, 254–255, 260–261
De aeternitate mundi (Aquinas), 92
De Amicis, Edmondo, 54
Death of Empedocles, The (Hölderlin), 118–119
de Bergerac, Cyrano, 58
decadents, 16
deception: fakes, 189–190. See also falsifications; lies
de Cherisey, Philippe, 257
De divisione naturae V (Eriugena), 207–208
De docta ignorantia (Nicholas of Cusa), 75
Defense of Flaccus (Cicero), 151
deity, 266; incarnate, 267–268. See also sacred
de la Peyrère, Isaac, 15
de Lille, Alain, 10
della Francesca, Piero, 30
della Mirandola, Pico, 15
de Molay, Jacques, 259
demoniacal, 38
demons, 258–259
Dénarnaud, Marie, 256
de Sade, Marquis, 61
Descartes, René, 10, 178, 229–230
de Sède, Gérard, 257, 257–258, 259, 260
detachment, aesthetic, 42–44, 47
De Vulgari Eloquentia (Dante), 7
d’Honnecourt, Villard, 30
Di Bernardo, Giuliano, 232–233
Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermétique (Pernety), 110
Diderot, Denis, 203
Diogenes Laertius, 102, 149–150
Dionysius the Carthusian, 268
diplomacy, lies in, 174
diplomatic forgery, 188–189
dissimilitude, 267
dissimulation, 174, 177–178
Dissimulazione onesta (Accetto), 177–178
Divine Comedy (Dante), 209, 215. See also Dante Alighieri; Inferno (Dante); Paradiso (Dante)
Divine Names (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite), 32
divinity, 266; experience of, 268–284; fire and, 101–106. See also sacred
Dizionario antiballistico (Pitigrilli), 154, 155
Dolcino, Fra, 120
Donation of Constantine, 184, 191
Donna Grottesca (Metsys), 71
Doré, Gustav, 33, 104
doubles, 185
Douglas, Karen, 252
Doumenc, Philippe, 133
drug abuse, generations and, 22
du Bellay, Joachim, 57
Duchamp, Marcel, 17
Dumas, Alexandre, 127; The Count of Monte Cristo, 210–214; The Three Musketeers, 211
dwarfs and giants metaphor. See father-son conflicts; giant-dwarf metaphor; shoulders of giants

Eckhart, Meister, 268–269
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (Marx), 45–46
ecstasy, aesthetic, 116–117
ekpyrosis, 119, 121–123
elements, threats to, 122. See also fire
11 / 9. La cospirazione impossibile (9 / 11: The Impossible Conspiracy; Polidoro), 245
Eliot, T. S., 217
embryos, 84
Empedocles, 118–119, 120
Enciclopedia filosofica ISEDI, 25
Encyclopédie (Diderot), 16
enemy, 54–57
Enlightenment, giant-dwarf metaphor and, 15–16
Epimenides, 146–147
Epimetheus, 112–113
epiphany, fire and, 115–118
Epistolae (Virgil), 6
Epitomae (Virgil), 5
Eriugena, John Scotus, 32, 105, 207–208
Esperimento di Pot, L’ (Pitigrilli), 155
Essai sur la secte des illuminés (de Luchet), 233–234
Estetica (Pareyson), 201–202, 206–207, 208
ethics: of lie, 173–176; without God, 95–96
Evatlo, 149
evil, 37
excess, 203–214
executions, descriptions of, 48–50

facts, vs. interpretations, 93–96
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 121
faith, 80; truth of, 92
fakes, 189–190
fallibilism, 87
false identification, 183
falsifications, 171–173, 183–189, 191
Fama fraternitatis, 228
fascists, 54–55
fashion, 41
father-son conflicts, 1; in Inferno, 8; reference to past in, 15–16. See also generational clash / generations; giant-dwarf metaphor; innovation; shoulders of giants
Fatima, 108, 236–237, 278, 279–283
Federal Reserve Bank, 249–250
Ficino, Marsilio, 15
fiction: vs. lying, 179–181; possible worlds in, 128–129
fictional characters, 125–144; descriptions of, 126–127; destiny of, 144; diagnostic properties, 140–141; emotion and, 135, 141; fluctuating, 136–139, 140, 142–143; invisibility of, 125; making true statements about, 131–133; outside texts, 126, 132, 136–139; religion and, 142; semiotic objects and, 139, 140; strong identity of, 133; truth and, 130, 138
fictionality, signals of, 180–181
Fides et ratio (John Paul II), 91
Filosofia della bugia (Tagliapietra), 170
Filosofia della massoneria (Di Bernardo), 232–233
fire, 98–124; alchemical, 109–112; beauty of, 103; as cause of art, 112–115; describing beauty in terms of, 117; as divine element, 101–106; ekpyrosis, 121–123; as epiphanic experience, 115–118; functions of, 98; hellfire, 106–108; making, 113–115; psychoanalysis of, 99–101; regenerating, 118–121; torture and, 120; of war, 121–122
fireplace, 98
Fire Sermon (Buddha), 122–123
Firth, Raymond, 278
Flagellation of Christ, The (della Francesca), 30
Flame, The (D’Annunzio), 117
Flaubert, Gustave, 221
Fleming, Ian, 61
fluctuating characters, 136–139, 140, 142–143
Fludd, Robert, 228
Fontanelle, Bernard Le Bovier de, 2
forgeries, 183–189, 191, 257
forgery, diplomatic, 188–189
Formaggio, Dino, 25
Forty Days, The (Maddalena de’ Pazzi), 272
Foucault’s Pendulum (Eco), 238–242
Frankenstein (Shelley), 59
Frazetta, Frank, 69
Freemasons, 231–233, 245, 254
French Revolution, 234, 248
Friedrich, Caspar David, 44, 79
Fuoco greco, Il (Malerba), 121
furor sententialis, 166
Futurists, 65–66

Gaelic, 7
Gale, Megan, 20
Galileo Galilei, 178
Gassendi, Pierre, 12
Gates, Bill, 22
Gaudí, Antoni, 69, 218
G8 conference, 19
generational clash / generations: drug abuse and, 22; giant-dwarf metaphor and, 13; innovation and, 21; need for, 23; in 1968, 18; nonconformity and, 23; in philosophy, 8; requirements for, 19–20; technology and, 21; transgenerational models and, 20–21. See also father-son conflicts; giant-dwarf metaphor; innovation; shoulders of giants
Gesuita moderno, Il (Gioberti), 249
giant-dwarf metaphor, 1, 11; Christianity and, 14; Enlightenment and, 15–16; progress and, 13–14. See also generational clash / generations; shoulders of giants
Gibson, Mel, 48
Gioberti, Vincenzo, 249
Giotto, 34
globalization, 18–19
global warming, 122
Gluckman, Max, 13
God, 266; absolute’s identification with, 74–75; associated with light, 31–32; direct experience of, 268–284; ethics without, 95–96; as Great Void, 268–272; representations of, 267–268. See also sacred
good: vs. beautiful, 42; beauty identified with, 50
Goretti, Maria, 279
gossip, 225–226
Gozzano, Guido, 66–67
Gracián, Baltasar, 174, 178, 224
grammar, imperfect tense in, 221
“Grandmother Speranza’s Friend” (Gozzano), 66–67
Great Schism, 173
Greek culture, ugliness and, 50–51
Greek fire, 121
Gregory of Tours, 4
Greimas, Algirdas, 196
Gronchi pink stamp, 199
Grosseteste, Robert, 33, 34, 105
Gryphius, Andreas, 57–58
Guénon, Réné, 229
Guercino, 258
Guerrini, Olindo, 64–65
Guevara, Che, 18
Guggenheim, Benjamin, 249
Guimard, Hector, 68
Guinizelli, Guido, 26, 104
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), 180–181

Ham (Biblical figure), 2
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 217
hearth, 98
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 7, 14, 16, 51, 78
height, of ancestors, 9–10
hellfire, 106–108
Heraclitus, 102, 118, 119
hierophancy, 263, 277
Hildegard of Bingen, 33, 54
Hisperic aesthetic, 4–5
historical statements, 132
history: excessive use of, 17–18; as progress, 14; uncertainty in, 132–133, 172. See also ancestors / ancients; past
History of Fra Dolcino, Heresiarch, 120
Hitler, Adolf, 130, 132
Hofstadter, Richard, 252
Hölderlin, Friedrich, 118–119
holism, 86–88
Holmes, Sherlock (fictional character), 128, 129, 138
Holy Grail, 255–261
Holy Grail, The (Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln), 259, 260–261
Homer, 247
Hooke, Robert, 12
Horace, 3, 19
Hugo, Victor, 59–60
humanism, 14–15
Hume, David, 16
Huppert, Isabelle, 136
“Hymn to Satan” (Carducci), 16

Iamblichus, 45
Ibn Khaldun, 223
Ignatius of Loyola, 51–52
Iliad, 50
Illuminati, 230, 234, 249
image, Ockhamist theory of, 264–266
imperfection, 196–221; aesthetics of ruins, 202–203; in art, 201–224; bad music, 219–221; cult works, 215–219; padding / excess, 203–214; structure / support as, 204–214; sublime and, 219
imperfect tense, 221
Importance of Being Ernest, The (Wilde), 161
Incarnation of Jesus Christ, The (Böhme), 271
inconceivable, 78
indefinite, 79
industrial ugliness, 63–64
Inferno (Dante), 8. See also Dante Alighieri; Divine Comedy (Dante)
infinite, 79
infinite, actual, 147
infinite, potential, 147–148
Infinito, L’ (Leopardi), 209
Ingarden, Roman, 127
innovation, 9; acceptance of, 21–23; constant, 23; in language, 4–8; opposition to, 3; praise of ancients and, 10; pride in, 4. See also father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations
In Praise of Imperfection (Levi-Montalcini), 196
insolubilia, 146
integritas, 197
integrity, beauty and, 35
internet, generations and, 21
interpretant sign, 28. See also signs
interpretations, vs. facts, 93–96
invisibility / invisible, 125–144; sacred as, 262; secret societies and, 230. See also fictional characters
Irish (language), 7
irony, 183
Isaac (Biblical figure), 2
Isidore of Seville, 151
Italian (language), 7–8

Jacob (Biblical figure), 2
Jacobins, 234
Jeauneau, Édouard, 11
Jerome, Saint, 4–5
Jervis, Giovanni, 90
Jesuits, 176, 178, 249–250
Jews: descriptions of, 55–57; 9 / 11 conspiracy theory and, 244; Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 188–189, 234, 247, 248; on Titanic, 249–250
John of Salisbury, 11, 12, 13
John of the Cross, Saint, 80, 81, 269–271, 277
John Paul II (pope), 91, 236
John XXIII (pope), 236
Jolley, Daniel, 252
Jones, Jennifer, 278
Joyce, James, 17, 75, 117, 118
Judaism in Music (Wagner), 56

Kafka, Franz, 80
Kant, Immanuel, 16, 85, 175, 176, 177
Karenina, Anna (fictional character), 126–127, 128, 130, 133, 135, 138, 141
Keats, John, 80–81, 97
Kennedy, John F., 253–254
Key, The (Tanizaki), 200–201
kitsch, 66–68, 214
Knights Templar, 231, 234, 248, 257, 259
Kraus, Karl, 167–168
Kugelmass Episode, The (film), 141
Kyd, Thomas, 217, 218
Kyoto Protocol, 122

Labruyère, Joël, 249
language: innovation in, 4–8; vernacular, 6–8, 19
Last Judgment (Giotto), 34
Last Supper (Leonardo), 254–255
Latin, 4
La Tour, Georges de, 32
Lautréamont, Comte de [Isidore Ducasse], 65
Léa (d’Aurevilly), 26–27, 59
Lec, Stanislaw J., 168–169
Lecaldano, Eugenio, 95
Leibniz, Wilhelm Gottfried, 184
Leigh, Richard, 259, 260–261
Lenin, Vladimir, 81
Leonardo da Vinci, 30, 254–255
Leopardi, Giacomo, 14, 79, 199, 209
Lettres provinciales (Pascal), 249
Levi-Montalcini, Rita, 196
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 114
Lhomoy, Roger, 257
liar, self-professed, 146–147
lies, 169–195; bad faith, 182–183; in Baroque era, 176–179; based on monadic relationship, 182–183; based on triadic relationship, 183; in diplomacy, 174; Eco’s definition of, 170–171; ethics of, 173–176; malicious, 176; vs. mistakes, 171; vs. narrative fiction, 179–181; secrets and, 238; white, 176
Life (Cellini), 114
Life of Pythagoras (Iamblichus), 45
light / claritas, 104; beauty and, 31–34 (see also beauty); cosmology of, 105; God associated with, 31–32; Middle Ages and, 32, 104–105; in Paradiso, 33
Lincoln, Abraham, 253–254
Lincoln, Henry, 259, 260–261
linguistic holism, 87–88
Linguistics of Lying, The (Weinrich), 183
lithium, 76–77
loan words, 5
Locke, John, 88
logica modernorum, 8–9
Lombroso, Cesare, 53
Lordon, Frédéric, 251
Lorre, Peter, 218
Louis XVI (Louis Capet; king of France), 15
Lourdes, 278, 279
Luchet, Jean-Pierre-Louis de, 233–234
Lucia, Sister, 236, 237, 279. See also Fatima
Lucian of Samosata, 181
Lying in Politics (Arendt), 193–194

Macbeth (Shakespeare), 70
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 173–174, 178
Madame Bovary (Flaubert), 133. See also Bovary, Emma (fictional character)
Maddalena de’ Pazzi, Saint, 272
Magdalene with the Smoking Flame (La Tour), 32
Magritte, René, 17, 73
Maier, Michael, 228
Malerba, Luigi, 121
Mallarmé, Stéphane, 79–80
manias, 243. See also conspiracy
mannerism, 57
Manuel Rosicrucie, 229
Man who Laughs, The (Hugo), 59–60
Manzoni, Alessandro, 128, 179
Manzoni, Piero, 70
Marcuse, Herbert, 18
Margherita (wife of Dolcino), 120
Marguerite Marie Alacoque, Saint, 273–276, 278
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso, 16, 17, 19, 39, 65
Marino, Giambattista, 200
Maritain, Jacques, 10
Marot, Clement, 57
Martini, Carlo Maria, 95–96
Marx, Karl, 14, 16, 45
Mary (Biblical figure), 279. See also Fatima; Lourdes; Medjugorje
Masons, 231–233, 245, 254
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (Lenin), 81
Mattioli, Ercole, 107–108
maxims / aphorisms, 151–156; art of, 153; defining, 151–152; as expression of commonplace, 154; false, 166; Kraus’s, 168; Pitigrilli’s, 153–156; reversible, 155–156, 168; truth and, 152–153, 155–156; Wilde and, 157–166; wit and, 152–153, 156
Mazarin, Jules, 176, 224–225
meaning: attributing, 75–77; vs. signifier, 129, 130, 131
Medea, 1
Medjugorje, 237, 279
melodrama, in The Count of Monte Cristo, 214
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du jacobinisme (Barruel), 234
Merton, Robert, 11–12
Message of Fatima (Ratzinger), 282–283
Metalogicon (John of Salisbury), 12
Metaphysics (Aristotle), 184
Metsys, Quentin, 71
Metternich, Clemens von, 248
Michelangelo, 57
Michelet, Jules, 249
Middle Ages, 35; colors and, 32; light and, 32, 104–105; monsters in, 35–38, 43, 52; recurring themes in culture of, 13
Milanesiana, La, ix; 2001, 1–24; 2005, 25–44; 2006, 45–72; 2007, 73–97; 2008, 98–124; 2009, 125–144; 2010, 145–169; 2011, 170–195; 2012, 196–221; 2013, 222–242; 2015, 243–261; 2016, 262–284
Millenarianism, 14
miniatures, medieval, 32, 33
minimal realism, 86
mistakes, vs. lies, 171
modernism, past and, 16–17
modernity, 15–16
modernus (term), 3, 8
modesty, false, 177
monadic relationship, lies based on, 182–183
Monde malade des jésuites, Le (Labruyère), 249
Monde ou traité de la lumière, Le (Descartes), 178
Mondrian, Piet, 39
Monoteismo, Il (Ratzinger), 92
monsters, 35–38, 43, 51, 52
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 57, 88, 199–200
moral beauty, 31
Moral Essays (Shaftesbury), 38
moral relativism, 90–91
moral ugliness, 50
Moravia, Alberto, 210
Moro, Aldo, 248
mourning, praise for, 65
Muqaddima (Ibn Khaldun), 223
music, bad, 219–221
musical scores, 130, 131
Mysteries of Paris, The (Sue), 28–29
Mysteries of the People, The (Sue), 249
mystery, 40
mysticism, 266; female, 272–284; male, 268–272; of Sacred Heart, 278
mythology, characters of, 142
mythopoeia, 214–215

Nabati, Abu Bakr Hammad an-, 223
Name of the Rose, The (Eco), 121
Napoleon Bonaparte, 172
narrative fiction, vs. lying, 179–181
Natural History (Pliny the Elder), 35
nature, sublime and, 38–39
Neoclassical style, 39
neofascism, 57
Neoplatonism, 32, 34
new, conflict with old, 2–3. See also father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations
New Age, 22–23
Newton, Isaac, 12
Nicholas of Cusa, 75, 80
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 17; objections to, 96; On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense, 93–95; on ugliness, 51
Niketas Choniates, 48
9 / 11, 235–236, 244–245, 253, 254
Noah (Biblical figure), 2
nonconformity, 23
novelistic statements, epistemological function of, 134
numerology, 255

obsessions, 243. See also conspiracy theory
Ode on a Grecian Urn (Keats), 80–81
Oedipus, 1
old, conflict with new, 2–3. See also father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations
One Lonely Night (Spillane), 49
120 Days of Sodom, The (de Sade), 61
On Imperfection (Greimas), 196
On the Shoulders of Giants (Merton), 11–12
“On the Skeleton of Filosette Exhumed” (Gryphius), 57–58
“On the Tragic Art” (Schiller), 48
On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense (Nietzsche), 93–95
Open Society and its Enemies, The (Popper), 246–247
opera, 69
Oppenheimer, Robert, 122
Or de Rennes, L’ (de Sède), 257
Ortega y Gasset, José, 12–13
Ovid, 3

Pacioli, Luca, 30
padding / excess, 203–214
Palazzeschi, Aldo, 65–66
Paradiso (Dante), 78; fire in, 104–105; light in, 33. See also Dante Alighieri; Divine Comedy (Dante)
paradoxes: art of, 153; barber paradox, 148–149; false, 166; vs. interchangeable aphorism, 156; Kraus’s, 167–168; logical, 145–150; not interchangeable, 168–169; popular opinion and, 156; rhetorical, 150–151; truth and, 152–153, 156; Wilde and, 157–166; wit and, 156. See also maxims / aphorisms
paralogisms, 146
paranoia, 252
Paranoid Style in American Politics, The (Hofstadter), 252
paratext, 180
Pareyson, Luigi, 201–202, 206–207, 208
Parthenon, 187
Pascal, Blaise, 249
Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 252
passion, ugliness as, 47
Passion of Christ, The (film), 48
past: conspiracy and, 243; modernism and, 16–17. See also ancestors / ancients; history; shoulders of giants
Pater, Walter, 116
Paul, Saint, 146
Paves, Cesare, 226
Peirce, Charles Sanders, 28, 76–77, 87
Péladan, Joséphin, 237
Pelat, Roger-Patrice, 260
penances, 51–52
Pentagon Papers, 194
Pera, Marcello, 89
perfection: attractiveness and, 200–201; as wholeness, 197–199
Pernety, Dom, 110–111, 112
Perrault, Charles, 2, 137
Perseus (Cellini), 114
perspectives, reality and, 88
Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful (Burke), 38–39
philosophy: authority of predecessors and, 10–11; generational clash in, 8; sacred and, 262–263
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (Wilde), 165–166
physiognomy, 53–57
Physiologus, 35
Pia & utilissima admonitio de Fratribus Rosae-Crucis (Neuhaus), 230–231
Pia Società San Paolo, 237
Picasso, Pablo, 17, 39
Picture of Dorian Gray, The (Wilde), 161–165
Piemme Editions, 245
Pietà illustrata (Mattioli), 107–108
pilgrimages, 261
Pipes, Daniel, 248
Pitigrilli [Dino Segre], 153–156
plagiarism, 260–261
Plantard, Pierre, 256–257, 258, 259, 260
Plato, 15, 47, 112–113, 173. See also Neoplatonism
Platonism, Renaissance, 15
Pleasures and Days (Proust), 219–220
Pliny the Elder, 35
Plotinus, 102–103
plots, 245. See also conspiracy; conspiracy theory
Poesia, La (Croce), 204–206
poets, absolute and, 79–80
Polidoro, Massimo, 245
politicians, 224–225
Politicians’ Breviary, The (Mazarin), 224–225
Polonaises (Chopin), 209
poor, ugliness and, 54
Popper, Karl, 246–248, 261
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (Joyce), 75, 117, 118
positivism, 86
postmodernism, 17–18
Poussin, Nicolas, 258
powerlessness, 78–79
pragmatists, 87
Prague Cemetery, The (Eco), 171
Precepts of the Poets, The, 7
Pre-Raphaelites, 16
Princesse de Clèves, 137
Priory of Sion, 255–261
privacy, 225–226
progress, 13–14
Prometheus, 112–113, 115
proof of silence, 245
proportion: in abstract art, 40; beauty and, 29–31, 38–39. See also beauty
Protagoras, 149
Protagoras (Plato), 112–113
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 188–189, 234, 247, 248
Proust, Marcel, 28, 219–220
pseudepigraphs, 187–188
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, 32, 79, 80, 103, 266–267
pseudo-doubles, 185
Psychoanalysis of Fire (Bachelard), 100–101
Ptolemy, 171
puppet theatre, 181
purification, 120–121
Pythagoras, 15, 29–30, 227

querelle des anciens et des modernes, 2. See also father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations
Quinet, Edgar, 249
Quixote, Don, 120

racial enemies, 54–57
racism, 54–57
Rahn, Otto, 255
ramshackle works, 215
Raphael, 184
Ratzinger, Joseph, 89, 91, 92–93, 281–284. See also Benedict XVI (pope)
reactionary, Renaissance as, 15
realism, minimal, 86
reality, perspective and, 88
Record of a Journey from Paris to Jerusalem and Back (Chateaubriand), 202–203
Redon, Odilon, 26
relative: ambiguity of term, 74; meaning of term, 73–74. See also absolute
relativism, 85–86, 172; anti-relativists, 93; cultural, 88–91; moral, 90–91; secular critique of, 89–90; use of term, 74
relativity: of beauty, 39, 43; of ugliness, 45, 71
religions, characters of, 142–143
Renaissance, The (Pater), 116
Renaissance Platonism, 15
Rennes-le-Château, 255–261
reserve, 225–227, 238
resurrection, 197–198
Rifkin, Jeremy, 13
Rimbaud, Arthur, 8
Romance of Alexander, 35
Romantics, 16, 104
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), 209–210
Romero, George, 70
Rosenkrantz, Karl, 45
Rosenkreutz, Christian, 228
Rosicrucians, 227–231
Rostand, Edmond, 58
Rubinstein, Arthur, 78
ruins, aesthetics of, 202–203
Russell, Bertrand, 148

sacred: direct experience of, 268–284; erotic experience of, 272–273; female saints and, 277; fundamental problem with, 264; historical period and representation of, 277–283; invisibility of, 262; philosophy and, 262–263; Pseudo-Dionysius on, 266–267; reactions to experience of, 263–264; representations of, 262–284; understanding of, 262–263; visions of, 277
Sacred Heart, 278
Sadiq, Ja’far al-, 222
Sagrada Família, 69, 218
saints, female, 277
Salon of 1767 (Diderot), 203
Sanguineti, Edoardo, 6
Sarkozy, Nicolas, 136–137
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 182–183
Saturn, 1
Saunière, Bérenger, 255–256, 259
Savio, Dominic, 279
Scala d’Oro series, 131
Schelling, F. W. J. von, 74
Schiller, Friedrich, 48
Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 263
Scholastics, 11
Schwarz, Berthold, 121
Scusa l’anticipo ma ho trovato tutti verdi, 166–167
Secret Book of Artephius, The, 110
secrets, 222–242; cryptographies, 223–224; difficulty of keeping, 246; empty, 238, 244; of Fatima, 236–237 (see also Fatima); gods of, 222; lying and, 238; mystery, 227; open, 224; power derived from, 238; privacy, 225–226; reserve, 225–227, 238; revealed, 237–242, 245–246; Rosicrucians, 227–231. See also conspiracy; Da Vinci Code, The (Brown)
secret societies: Carbonari, 230; Freemasons, 231–233, 245, 254; Illuminati, 230, 234, 249; invisibility and, 230; Knights Templar, 231, 234, 248, 257, 259; Rosicrucians, 227–231
semiotic objects, fictional characters and, 139, 140
“Sentry” (Brown), 70–71
Senza radici (Pera and Ratzinger), 89
September 11, 2001. See 9 / 11
Sermons (Tauler), 269
Sgarbi, Elisabetta, 262
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of, 38
Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, 217; Macbeth, 70; Romeo and Juliet, 209–210; The Tempest, 57; A Winter’s Tale, 129
Shelley, Mary, 59
shoulders of giants, 1–24; origins of metaphor, 11–13. See also ancestors / ancients; father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations; giant-dwarf metaphor; past
signals of fictionality, 180–181
signifier, 130, 131
signs, 264–265; lies and, 170–171; meaning of, 28
Simmel, Georg, 225, 230, 238
Smullyan, Raymond, 150
“Social Consequences of Conspiracism, The” (Douglas and Jolley), 252
Socrates, 176
“Song of Hate, The” (Guerrini), 64–65
Songs of Maldoror (Lautréamont), 65
sons, conflict with fathers. See father-son conflicts; generational clash / generations; giant-dwarf metaphor
Sontag, Susan, 68
Sorrows of Young Werther, The (Goethe), 135
Soubirous, Bernadette, 173, 278
Spillane, Mickey, 49–50
Spinoza, Baruch, 74, 252
stained-glass windows, 32
stamps, imperfect, 199
Stoics, 119
Stout, Rex, 137
Straus, Isidor, 249
structure / support, 204–214
sublime, 38–39; in The Count of Monte Cristo, 214; imperfection and, 219; inability to express, 79
Sue, Eugène, 28–29, 249
Summa logicae (William of Ockham), 265
Summa theologiae (Aquinas), 176
Supper in Emmaus (van Meegeren), 188
Supplementum (Aquinas), 197
Swift, Jonathan, 180–181, 194–195
Symbols Public and Private (Firth), 278

Tagliapietra, Andrea, 170
Tanizaki, Junichiro, 200–201
Tarski, Alfred, 81, 134
Tauler, Johannes, 269
Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature, The (Marinetti), 65
technology, generations and, 21
television, 20
Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 57
Templars, 231, 234, 248, 257, 259
Teresa of Avila, Saint, 272–273
themes, recurring, ix; in medieval culture, 13
Themis aurea (Maier), 228
theology, 9; negative, 35–37. See also philosophy
theophanic attitude, 266
Theory of Semiotics, A (Eco), 170
Thersites, 50
Three Musketeers, The (Dumas), 140, 211
Thyestes, 1
time, Augustine on, 25
Time of Indifference, The (Moravia), 210
Titanic, 249–250
tokens, 185
tolerance: acceptability of truth and, 85; cultural relativism and, 90
Tolstoy, Leo, 126, 134. See also Karenina, Anna (fictional character)
torture, fire and, 120
Tractatus de bono et malo (William of Auvergne), 197
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Spinoza), 252
Tramaglino, Renzo (fictional character), 128
transgenerational models, 20–21
Traviata, La (opera), 69
triadic relationship, lies based on, 183
Triumphs of Death, 48
Trovatore, Il (opera), 69
True History (Lucian of Samosata), 181
truth, 171; absolute and, 81–85; authority and, 10; vs. consensus, 93; criteria of verification, 172–173; fictional characters and, 130, 131–132, 138; historical statements and, 132; irony and, 183; maxims / aphorisms and, 152–153, 155–156; notions of, 91–92; paradox and, 152–153, 156; pragmatists and, 87; revision of, 132; as secret, 227; theory of, 81; tolerance and, 85; verifying, 172. See also absolute; lies
Turba Philosophorum, 110
Turing, Alan, 223

ugliness, 45–72; aesthetic of, 35–39; in art, 51, 57–62; in avant-garde art, 65–67; bad caused by, 59; camp, 68–69; in children’s stories, 62; in Christianity, 51–52; criterion for, 45; of Cyrano de Bergerac, 58; identified with moral ugliness, 50; imperfection and, 197; kitsch, 66–68; in life, 70–71; Marx on, 45–46; of modern cities, 62–63; as passion, 47; physiognomy and, 53–57; pleasure in, 48; relativity of, 45, 71; understanding / sympathy for, 57. See also monsters
Ulysses (Joyce), 17
Un’etica senza Dio (Lecaldano), 95
unicorns, 36
Universal History of the Destruction of Books, A (Báez), 121
Unkempt Thoughts (Lec), 168–169
Untimely Meditations (Nietzsche), 17
Uomo Delinquente, L’ (The Criminal Man; Lombroso), 53

Valla, Lorenzo, 191
van Meegeren, Han, 188, 191
Veidt, Conrad, 218
Venice, beauty of, 117
Venus de Milo, 202
Vercingetorix, 10
vernacular, 6–8, 19
Vico, Giambattista, 15
Victory of Samothrace, 16, 19, 39
Vicuña, Laura, 279
Vie de Monsieur Descartes (Baillet), 230
Vignoli, Roberto, 245
villains, Bond, 61–62
Virgil, 5–6, 9
virtue, beauty as element of, 31
Vision of Ezekiel (Raphael), 184
visions. See Fatima; Lourdes; Medjugorje
Vitry, Jacques de, 46
Vittorino, Mario, 190
Voltaire, 46

Wagner, Richard, 56
Wandering Jew, The (Sue), 249
Webster, Nesta, 188–189
Weinrich, Harald, 183
West, defense of, 90
Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 87
Wiesel, Elie, 80, 96
WikiLeaks, 226
Wilde, Oscar, 157–166
William of Auvergne, 45, 197
William of Conches, 12
William of Ockham, 264–265
Winter’s Tale, A (Shakespeare), 129
words, meaning of, 75–77
World Trade Center, 235–236. See also 9 / 11

Xenophanes of Colophon, 26

Yates, Frances, 229

Zeno, 147
zeppa, 203–204, 205
Zero. Perché la versione ufficiale sull’11 / 9 è un falso (Zero: Why the Official Version of 9 / 11 is a Fake; Chiesa and Vignoli), 245
Zibaldone (Leopardi), 199