Word: templars
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...then, as a graduate student in Milan, he writes a doctoral thesis on the Knights of the Temple, a medieval order of warrior-monks formed in the 12th century and suppressed by the Pope in the 14th, who have vanished into a spiraling legend. Francis Bacon was a secret Templar, according to some spuriously authoritative sources; so, according to others, were Columbus, Mozart and Hitler...
...first, Casaubon laughs at such lunacies. His merriment is shared by Belbo and Diotallevi, editors at a Milanese publishing house. Given his expertise, Casaubon is hired as a consultant to advise on the endless stream of Templar manuscripts that flood the editorial offices. Eventually, these three scoffers find an amusing way to waste their time. Using Belbo's new word processor, they concoct "the Plan," a plausible scenario revealing a Templar plot to unleash unimaginable powers from the center of the earth in order to rule the world...
...least odd aspect of the affair is that Foucault's Pendulum is not so much a thriller as a complicated parable that contains pages and pages of erudite details about such medieval phenomena as the Knights Templar, the Cathars and the Order of Assassins. And Eco steadfastly refuses to explain what his mysterious novel is all about. "This was a book conceived to irritate the reader," he says in his drafty university office, lighting up another of the 60 cigarettes he puffs every day. "I knew it would provoke ambiguous, nonhomogeneous responses because it was a book conceived to point...
...plot, embedded in the 500 pages of mystic history, concerns three editors in a Milan publishing house who are working on a series about the occult arts. They become fascinated by a secret plan supposedly concocted by the Knights Templar to dominate the world by harnessing its magnetic currents. The Templars, Eco explains in a 20-page aside, were one of the great military monastic orders at the time of the Crusades and were suppressed after the King of France accused them, probably falsely, of homosexuality and sorcery...
...enormous expense involved in the litigation. An in ordinate amount of time would have been involved in trying the case, and an appeal would have been likely." To avoid encouraging other such suits, I.N.A. requested that records of the case be sealed in secrecy, and U.S. District Judge George Templar agreed. But after the Kansas City Star broke the news of the settlement, Templar admitted that he had "stubbed his toe" by approving the secrecy agreement and unsealed the records...