Isidore of Seville. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Trans. Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Lec, Stanisław J. Unkempt Thoughts [1957]. Trans. Clifton Fadiman. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1962.
Pitigrilli [Dino Segre]. Dizionario antiballistico [1953]. Milan: Sonzogno, 1962.
Pitigrilli [Dino Segre]. L’esperimento di Pott. Milan: Sonzogno, 1929.
Scusa l’anticipo ma ho trovato tutti verdi. Ed. A. Bucciante. Turin: Einaudi, 2010.
Smullyan, Raymond. To Mock a Mockingbird: And Other Logic Puzzles. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Ernest [1895]. London: Leonard Smithers, 1899.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray [1890]. In The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition, ed. Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.
Wilde, Oscar. The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams: Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young. London: A. R. Keller & Co., 1907.
8. Untruths, Lies, Falsifications
Accetto, Torquato. Della dissimulazione onesta [1641; On Honest Dissimulation]. Ed. S. S. Nigro. Turin: Einaudi, 1997.
Arendt, Hannah. “Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers.” New York Review of Books, November 18, 1971.
Aristotle. The Metaphysics. London: Penguin Classics, 1999.
Bacon, Francis. Essay 6: “Of Simulation and Dissimulation” [1625]. In The Essays of Francis Bacon. Ed. Clark S. Northrup. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1908.
Battista, Giuseppe. Apologia della menzogna [1673]. Palermo: Sellerio, 1990.
Bettetini, Maria. Breve storia della bugia: Da Ulisse a Pinocchio. Milan: Raffaello Cortina, 2010.
Constant, Benjamin. Des réactions politique [1797]. “On Political Reactions.” In Political Writings, trans. Biancamaria Fontana. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Descartes, René. Le monde ou traité de la lumière [1667]. “The Treatise on Light.” In The World and Other Writings, trans. Stephen Graukroger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Eco, Umberto. The Prague Cemetery. Trans. Richard Dixon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Eco, Il Cimitero di Praga. Milan: Bompiani, 2010.
Eco, Umberto. “Strategies of Lying.” In On Signs, ed. Marshall Blonsky. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
Eco, Umberto. A Theory of Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976. Eco, Trattato di semiotica generale. Milan: Bompiani, 1975.
Gracián y Morales, Baltasar. The Art of Worldly Wisdom. Trans. Christopher Maurer. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Facsimile edition: Gracián, Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia [1647]. Zaragoza: Institución Fernanto el Católico, 2001.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics, 4th ed., trans. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott. London: Kongmans, Green and Co., 1889.
Lucian of Samosata. True History [2nd century]. Trans. Francis Hickes. London: A. H. Bullen, 1902.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince [1532]. Trans. William K. Marriott. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness [1943]. Trans. Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Philosophical Library, 1948.
Scusa l’anticipo ma ho trovato tutti verdi. Ed. A. Bucciante. Turin: Einaudi, 2010.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World [1726]. London: George Routledge, 1882.
Swift, Jonathan / John Arbuthnot. The Art of Political Lying. New York: Editions Dupleix, 2013.
Tagliapietra, Andrea. Filosofia della bugia: Figure della menzogna nella storia del pensiero occidentale. Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2001.
Webster, Nesta. Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. London: Boswell, 1924.
Weinrich, Harald. Metafora e menzogna: Sulla serenità dell’arte [Metaphor and Lie: On the Serenity of Art]. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1983.
9. On Some Forms of Imperfection in Art
Augustine. De civitate Dei. The City of God. In The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, ed. Marcus Dods, vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1871.
Chateaubriand, François-René de. Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem et de Jérusalem à Paris [1811]. Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem. Trans. Anthony S. Kline. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
Croce, Benedetto. La poesia: Introduzione alla critica e storia della poesia e della letteratura [1936]. Milan: Adelphi, 1994.
Diderot, Denis. Oeuvres completes, vol. 16: Salon de 1767, Salon de 1769 (Beaux Arts III). Critical edition annotated by E. M. Bukdahl, M. Delon, and A. Larenceau. Paris: Hermann, 1990.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo [1844]. New York: Random House / Modern Library, 1996.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers [1844]. London: Wordsworth Editions, 1997.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien. De l’imperfection [On Imperfection]. Périgueux: P. Fanlac, 1987.
John Scotus Eriugena. De divisione naturae. Periphyseon: The Division of Nature. Trans. I.-P. Sheldon-Williams and John J. O’Meara. Paris: Bellarmin, 1987.
Leopardi, Giacomo. Zibaldone di pensieri [1817–1832]. Critical edition, ed. G. Pacella. Milan: Garzanti, 1991.
Levi-Montalcini, Rita. In Praise of Imperfection. Trans. Luigi Attardi. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Levi-Montalcini. Elogio dell’imperfezione. Milan: Garzanti, 1987.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de. Essays of Montaigne [1580–1588]. Trans. Charles Cotton. New York: Edwin C. Hill, 1910.
Moravia, Alberto. The Time of Indifference. Trans. Angus Davidson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953. Moravia. Gli indifferenti. Milan: Alpes, 1929.
Pareyson, Luigi. Estetica [1954]. Milan: Bompiani, 1988.
Proust, Marcel. Pleasures and Days [1896]. Trans. Andrew Brown. London: Hesperus Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet [1600–1602]. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet [1594–1596]. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.
Tanizaki, Junichiro. The Key [1956]. Trans. Howard Hibbett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae: Latin Text and English Translation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 61 vols., 1964–. Repr. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
William of Auvergne. “De Bono et Malo” [13th century; “On Good and Evil”]. Transcription of Latin manuscript: J. Reginald O’Donnell. “Tractatus Magistri Guillelmi Alvernensis De Bono Et Malo.” Medieval Studies 8 (1946): 245–299.
Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC). Manuel Rosicrucien. Paris: Éd. rosicruciennes, 1984.
Baillet, Adrien. La Vie de Monsieur Descartes. Paris: Daniel Horthemels, 1691.
Barruel, Augustin. Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du jacobinisme, 5 vols. Hamburg: P. Fauche libraire, 1798–1799.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Casanova, Giacomo. The Story of My Life [1789–1798]. Trans. Stephen Sartarelli and Sophie Hawks. London: Penguin Classics, 2001.
Di Bernardo, Giuliano. Freemasonry and Its Image of Man. Trans. Guy Aston and Giuliano di Bernardo. Tunbridge Wells, UK: Freestone, 1989. Di Bernardo. Filosofia della massoneria. Venice: Marsilio, 1987.
Eco, Umberto. Foucault’s Pendulum. Trans. William Weaver. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. Eco. Il pendolo di Foucault. Milan: Bompiano, 1988.
Guénon, René. Perspectives on Initiation. Trans. Henry D. Fohr, ed. Samuel D. Fohr. Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis, 2001. Guénon. Aperçus sur l’Initiation. Paris: Éditions Traditionelles, 1946.
Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Trans. Franz Rosenthal. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Johannes Valentinus Andreae. Fama fraternitatis [1614]. In Manifesti rosacroce: Fama fraternitatis, Confessio fraternitatis, Nozze chimiche, ed. G. De Turris. Rome: Edizioni Medite
rranee, 2016.
Luchet, Jean-Pierre-Louis de. Essai sur la secte des illuminés. Paris, 1789.
Maier, Michael. Themis aurea [1618]. Frankfurt am Main, 1624.
Mazarin, Jules. The Politicians’ Breviary [1684].
Neuhaus, Henry. Avertissement pieux et très utile des Frères de la Rose-Croix, à sçavoir s’il y en a? quels ils sont? d’où ils ont prins ce nom? Et a quelle fin ils ont espandu leur renommée? [Pious and Very Useful Warning about the Brothers of the Rose Cross; Namely, If There Are Any? What Are They? Where Did They Take This Name? And to What End Have They Sought Renown?]. Paris: au palais, 1623.
Ratzinger, Joseph. The Message of Fatima. June 26, 2000. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html.
Simmel, Georg. “The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies.” American Journal of Sociology 11 (1906): 441–498.
Yates, Frances. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
11. Conspiracy
Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.The Holy Grail. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Chiesa, Giulietto, and Roberto Vignoli, eds. Zero. Perché la versione ufficiale sull’11 / 9 è un falso [Zero: Why the Official Version about 9 / 11 Is a Fraud]. Casale Monferrato: Piemme, 2007.
Gioberti, Vincenzo. Il gesuita moderno [1846]. Milan: Bocca, 1942.
Hofstadter, Richard. The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays. London: Cape, 1964.
Jolley, Daniel, and Karen M. Douglas. “The Social Consequences of Conspiracism: Exposure to Conspiracy Theories Decreases Intentions to Engage in Politics and to Reduce One’s Carbon Footprint.” British Journal of Psychology 105, no. 1 (2014): 35–56.
Pascal, Blaise. Lettres provinciales [1656–1657]. The Provincial Letters. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1967.
Pipes, Daniel. Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From. New York: Free Press, 1997.
Polidoro, Massimo, ed. 11 / 9: La cospirazione impossibile. Casale Monferrato: Piemme, 2007.
Popper, Karl. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 3rd rev. ed. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1969.
Popper, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1945.
Sède, Gérard de. The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau. Trans. Henry Lincoln. Paris: Éditions de l’Oeil du Sphinx, 2013. Sède. Le trésor de Rennes-le-Chateau [1967]. Paris: J’ai lu, 1972.
Spinoza, Baruch. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670]. Theologico-Political Treatise. Trans. A. H. Gosset. London: G. Bell, 1883.
Sue, Eugène. The Mysteries of the People, Or, History of a Proletarian Family across the Ages. Trans. Daniel De Leon and Solon De Leon. New York: NY Labor News, 1904. Sue. Les Mystères de Paris. Originally serialized in ninety parts in Journal des débats, June 1842 to October 1843.
Sue, Eugène. The Wandering Jew. London: Routledge, 1879 / 1880. Le Juif Errant, serialized 1844–1845.
William of Ockham. In libros Sententiarum [Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard].
12. Representations of the Sacred
Alacoque, Marguerite Marie. The Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque [second half of 17th century]. Charlotte, NC: Tan Books, 1986.
Böhme, Jakob. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ [1620]. Trans. John Rolleston Earle. London: Constable, 1934.
Firth, Raymond. Symbols Public and Private. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973.
John of the Cross, Saint. The Ascent of Mount Carmel [1618]. In The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, 3 vols., trans. Edgar Allison Peers. London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1934–1935.
Mary Magdalene [Maria Maddalena de’Pazzi]. I quaranta giorni [1598]. Palermo: Sellerio, 1996. Selections from The Forty Days in Maria Maddalena de’Pazzi. Trans. Armando Maggi. New York: Paulist Press, 2000.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. On the Divine Names and On the Mystical Theology. Trans. C. E. Rolt. London: SPCK, 1920.
Ratzinger, Joseph. The Message of Fatima. June 26, 2000. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html.
Tauler, Johannes. Sermons [1300–1361]. Trans. Maria Shrady. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985.
Teresa of Ávila, Saint. The Book of My Life [1562]. Trans. Mirabai Starr. Boston: New Seeds, 2007.
William of Ockham. Summa logicae. In Ockham: Philosophical Writings, A Selection, trans. Philotheus Boehner. Edinburgh: Nelson, 1957.
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