that Langdon had taken the mask the previous night, placing it in a Ziploc bag and
giving it to the Museum Director. Both of them were intrigued by markings on the back
of the mask. Curiously, Zobrist, the owner of the mask and brilliant underground
biochemist who conducted research in germ-line manipulation, had given them
permission to take the mask from the museum. Through the discussion of Dante’s death
mask and what we learn of Zobrist’s scientific interests, Dante becomes associated with
the economics and overpopulation of the Plague, a topic introduced earlier in the novel.
More clues from the dying museum Director tell Langdon that what he needs is “safely
hidden” but Langdon must hurry to open the gates. The director’s dying words about
Paradise 25 points Langdon to Dante’s desire to return to his baptismal font at the
Bapistry of San Giovanni, with the breathtaking 10-paneled freeze of the Gates of
Paradise designed by artist Lorenzo Ghiberti.
“By then with other voice, with other fleece
I shall return as poet and put on
At my baptismal font, the laurel crown.” (Paradise 25, verses 7-9)
After the death mask is located, Langdon uncovers a 9-level spiral symmetrical
text (Brown 255) that starts “almost verbatim” with the first stanza from Dante. By now,
Langdon realizes that this coded text has been deliberately placed on the back of the
mask to lead him to the discovery of the mystery.
O you possessed of sturdy intellect,
Observe the teaching that is hidden here . . .
Beneath the veil of verses so obscure.
Seek the treacherous doge of Venice
Who severed the heads from horses . . .
And plucked up the bones of the blind.
Kneel within the holy museum of holy wisdom,
And place thine ear to the ground,
Listening for the sounds of trickling water.
Follow deep into the sunken palace . . .
For here, in the darkness
The chthonic monster waits submerged in the bloodred waters
Of the lagoon that reflects no stars.
Clues in this inscription (doges, lagoon) point Langdon to Venice and foreshadow
Dante’s chthonic monsters, sunken palace, and a starless lagoon that move the chase
to Istanbul. The citation to “place thine ear to the ground/Listening for the sounds of
trickling water” refers to the stream descending from the hollow in the rocks (Canto 34)
that leads Dante and Virgil out of hell and into the earth’s sky with heavenly stars. In
what we later learn to be Zobrist’s inscription on the back of the death mask, the lagoon
has no visible stars, thus void of hope and reinforcing the theme of “Abandon Hope, All
Ye Who Enter Here.”
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