Rosslyn: The Story of Rosslyn Chapel and the True Story Behind the Da Vinci Code [Paperback]

Andrew Sinclair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2006

The flamboyant Gothic church became a third Temple of Solomon for the Knights Templar, under the patronage of the St Clairs of Rosslyn. In the eighteenth century the Templars supported the Jacobite cause, and after the final defeat at Culloden, moved their radical Scots Lodges to America and France, where they played a powerful part in the revolutions in both countries. This book offers an enthralling trail through the rich tapestry of events witnessed by Rosslyn over the centuries. Andrew Sinclair, himself descended from Prince Henry St Clair, who could have taken the Templar treasure from the original vaults beneath Rosslyn Chapel to the medieval Newport Tower, Rhode Island, explores - and sometimes explodes - the many myths and misinterpretations that have grown up around Rosslyn, as the fortunes of the Sinclair family declined and the Church and Castle fell into ruin.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Comprehensive and scholarly ... Andrew Sinclair has written a fascinating book' - The Literary Review 'Andrew Sinclair guides us through this romantic story that has preoccupied poets, priests and pilgrims from Zeus to Jung and Indiana Jones. This is an absorbing history that transcends the frontiers and creeds of cultures and religions' - The Independent

About the Author

Andrew Sinclair is a leading novelist, historian and film-maker, and has lectured widely in Europe and America. His books include biographies of Jack London, John Ford, Che Guevara and Dylan Thomas. Andrew Sinclair appears in a special feature DVD to be released in May 2005 of Jerry Bruckheimer's Disney blockbuster, NATIONAL TREASURE. The film, released in the UK on Boxing day 2004, stars Nicholas Cage, who discovers the Templar treasure trove in America from a code and map written on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Birlinn Ltd (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841584177
• ISBN-13: 978-1841584171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,731,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too personal, too anti-Da-Vinci-Code, November 8, 2005

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosslyn: The Story of Rosslyn Chapel and the True Story Behind the Da Vinci Code (Paperback)

The title is misleading. It is the story of the Sinclair family that built the chapel and their castle from the darkest and dimmest origins of Sanctus Clarus to today. They were linked to the famous Templars and the armourers' guilds, groups, that followed them, many of them gypsies from Egypt. When the Templars came back to Europe they settled in many places but were particularly welcome in Rosslyn. The Rosslyn Sinclairs became the weapon providers of the Scottish crown and various factions. When the Templars were banned, it is highly probable that at least some of the ships transporting their treasures took refuge in Rosslyn. The chapel is built as a crossing and mixing of various influences. First the Templars influence and the clearly asserted desire to build a new Temple of Solomon with the two columns of Jachin and Boaz. Strangely enough in reverse order when compared with the original in Jerusalem : Boaz, the master, and Jachin, the pupil, the apprentice. Apart from this element many other elements are wrongly interpreted. The vault is a barrel vault, so romanesque, whereas the outside look is Gothic. The extremely carved decoration and tiling is not cistercian (Saint Bernard was for plain and only vegetal decoration) but directly romanesque, hence benedictine. What Andrew Sinclair says is problematic. Some elements are even unacceptable the way he presents them. He says there are seventy odd green men borrowed from nordic mythology. Wrong. Green men are Irish, hence Celtic, and they are always twinned with Sheela-na-gigs, female representations of fertility. Sinclair does not even speak of Sheela-na-gigs. So either they were all destroyed as lustful, or they were never there and then the green men are a continental Celtic representation widely recuperated by the Benedictines in their romanesque period and they are « wuyvres », male représentations of the creative power of nature, of underground forces, and of the power of the Verb, the Word, hence a representation of the Druid, the one who knows, the master, recuperated into the Christian faith as the patriarch, the creative power of the Verb, the Word, of God's Word, hence of the creative power of God. I could multiply examples, and I should visit this chapel to really see what it is all about. A last remark. The final diatribe against those who invented 50 years ago (on the basis of a quite longer tradition) the connection of the Saint Clairs with the blood line of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is out of place in a serious book. The final paragraph against the Da Vinci Code in this diatribe is purely un-academic and hence absurd.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne