Robert Langdon, #2
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
Contents
CHAPTER 71
Overview
On Teabing’s jet, Langdon and Teabing fail to identify the inscription hidden inside Saunière’s rosewood box, only for Sophie to recognize it as reversed English. The discovery links Saunière’s clue to Leonardo da Vinci’s mirror writing and shifts authority back to Sophie, whose childhood training by her grandfather proves essential.
The chapter advances the cryptex mystery without revealing the full message, while also showing Teabing’s fallibility and Rémy’s unease as Silas remains bound at the rear of the plane.
Summary
As Teabing’s Hawker levels off toward England, Langdon opens the rosewood box again and focuses on the hidden inscription beneath the inlaid rose rather than on the cryptex itself. Hoping the phrase Sub Rosa will help him understand the clue, Langdon studies the strange script but cannot identify it.
Langdon speculates that the writing may be Semitic or an ancient transliteration, while Teabing grows impatient for a look. Teabing examines the inscription with confidence, but his certainty collapses when he admits that the language looks like nothing he has ever seen.
Sophie asks to see the box her grandfather made, and Teabing reluctantly hands it over while privately assuming she is out of her depth. Instead, Sophie immediately recognizes the script and reveals that Jacques Saunière taught her the language when she was six. She teases Teabing that, given his loyalty to the Crown, he should have recognized it.
Langdon suddenly understands why the script seemed familiar: it resembles Leonardo da Vinci’s mirrored writing. Langdon recalls seeing Da Vinci’s Codex Leicester and realizing only through a mirror that its apparently unreadable text was reversed.
Sophie explains that the inscription is English written in reverse. Rather than needing a mirror, Sophie uses a light in the plane to shine through the thin wood veneer of the lid, making the hidden writing legible from the other side. Teabing is embarrassed to learn that the mysterious language is his native tongue.
At the rear of the plane, Rémy Legaludec tries unsuccessfully to hear the conversation over the engines. Uneasy about the night’s events, Rémy watches the bound Silas lying motionless at his feet, as if in prayer or resignation.
Who Appears
- Sophie NeveuRecognizes Saunière’s inscription as mirrored English and uses childhood knowledge to make it legible.
- Robert LangdonStudies the inscription, fails to identify it, then connects it to Da Vinci’s mirror writing.
- Leigh TeabingImpatiently examines the clue, misjudges Sophie, and is embarrassed by missing reversed English.
- Rémy LegaludecListens from the rear of the plane and grows uneasy about the night’s events.
- SilasLies bound and motionless at Rémy’s feet, appearing resigned or prayerful.
- Jacques SaunièreAbsent clue maker whose mirrored-writing lesson to Sophie enables her to interpret the inscription.