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
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
“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