All about Maddie

What is Maddie's secret? How is The Voice able to control her? I'm struggling to find her in all of this. Some of the ideas that I'm testing include

• The Voice is her father.


• The Voice is holding her son/daughter hostage.


• She is complicit with The Board (and The Voice) and is a willing participant hoping to get the secret for herself.


• She followed the teachings of grandpa but fell in with the wrong group.


• She was raised to be a foil to Peter and then unleashed.

I desperately want her to be innocent, but I know that Peter at one point will believe she is the enemy. I think Maddie was raised by a booklover, whether The Voice or not. She was a subscriber to Grandpa's magazine, which means she's about the same age as Peter. (He could be younger than I thought since I don't think DTP will enter into the story after all.)

She definitely learned her love of ancient manuscripts and desire to study printing from the magazine. She was pretty punk as a teen and into college. The rituals of the guild appealed to her on a goth or punk level.

Does she have a fairly normal family life? Is one parent a kind of stepchild to the guild who fills her head with stories that she later uses to gain admittance? There are really only a few things I can think of that would motivate her.

• she has family, maybe child,, that is at risk if she doesn't obey


• She cheated on her dissertation and would be ruined if she were found out


• She committed some crime and will be sent to prison if it is discovered


• An abusive former boyfriend or husband is somehow manipulating her


• She is part of a truly insane religious cult


• She fled an Islamic country and will be returned to a man she was married to at age 10

A location!

It turns out that Mt. Nemrut might be the best location. It is a popular toursit attraction built to honor the goodness of a king and his special relationship with the gods. It has lots of broken statues. It's 7,000 feet in altitude. It doesn't require special permission to get into and is fairly isolated from the war zones. It would be easy to have symbols hidden among the ruins that would guide them to the secret entrance to the library which would be underground where the king is buried. In fact, the origin of the marks might be in the site. I've already verified Star, Crescent, and Pyramid. A deep earthquake caused by the sound generator that breaks all the glass would entomb the library and anyone in it permanently.

Nemrut Dag (Mt Nemrud) is a mountain measuring 2,150meters in height. It is located near the village of Karadut in Kahta county in the province of Adiyaman. Kings of the Kommagene dynasty from 80 B.C. to 72 A.D ruled Adiyaman and its vicinity. This kingdom, whose capital was Samosata (now called Samsat), was founded around 80 B.C. by Mithridates 1, father of Antiochos 1.

The kingdom's independence came to an end with its defeat by Roman legions in the last of the Kommagene wars and it became part of the Roman province of Syria. At its height, Kommagene extended from the Toros (Taurus) mountains on the north to the Firat (Euphrates) river on the east and southeast, to present-day Gaziantep on the south, and to the county of Pazarcik in Kahramanmaras on the west. The magnificent ruins on the summit of Mt Nemrud are not those of an inhabited site however. They are instead the famous tumulus (burial mound) and hierotheseion (a word that is derived from Greek and refers to the sacred burial precinct of the royal family, and whose use is known only in Kommagene) of King Antiochos I of Kommagene, who ruled from 69 to 36 B.C.

In a cult inscription, King Antiochos declares that he had the site built for the ages and generations that were to follow him "as a debt of thanks to the gods and to his deified ancestors for their manifest assistance". The king also declares that his aim was to provide for the people an "example of the piety that the gods commanded be shown towards the gods and towards ancestors.

"Professor K. Dorner has traced the genealogy of Antiochos 1, who was himself born of a Persian father and a Seleucid-Macedonian mother. His findings indicate that Antiochos I of Commagene claimed descent, through his father Mithridates, from Dareios (Darius) 1 (522-486 B.C.) and, through his mother Laodike, from Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.)

Mt Nemrud is located 100 kms from Adiyaman. No reference is made to it in ancient sources. Karl Sester, a German road engineer, rediscovered it in modern times in 1881. An expedition to Mt Nemrud was organized in 1882-83 by Karl Humann and Otto Puchstein, who published their findings in a book entitled Reisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien (Berlin 1890). Osman Hamdi Bey and Osgan Effendi also investigated the site in 1883 and their findings were published in a book entitled Le Tumulus de Nemroud Dagh (Istanbul 1883). F. Karl Dorner and Rudolf Naumann mounted an expedition to Mt Nemrud in 1938. Dorner returned to the site after 1951 and began working there with the US researcher Teresa Goell.

In 1984, a Turkish-German team led by Professor Dorner successfully carried out restoration work at the site. Excavation and restoration work has been continuing since 1989 under the direction of Sencer Sahin. In 1989, Nemrut Dag and its environs were declared a national park. The tumulus on the summit of Mt Nemrud measures 50 meters high and covers an area 150 meters in diameter. It is formed from stones the size of a fist and is bounded on the east, west, and north by terraced courts carved out of the native rock. The eastern court was the center of the sacred precinct and is the most important group of sculptural and architectural works. It is surrounded on the west by colossal statues, on the east by a fire altar in the shape of a stepped pyramid, and on the north and south by low walls of orthostats (upright stone slabs) standing on a long, narrow base.

http://www.adiyamanli.org/mt_nemrut.htm.

Where is the library hidden?

Getting to a known location might be easier than picking a random cave in SE Turkey. Say for example, Mt. Ararat. You could also have a Biblical clue from Genesis for that. Then the map might be of just the mountain with the symbols hidden to mark the route. No additional borders to cross either.

ANSWER:

40. Great info on State Department Web site on traveling in Turkey. Quite dangerous. Lots of terrorist attacks. Recommends only flying not driving or public transportation. Go out only during day. Southeast and Ararat are the most dangerous areas.

Who's who?

The detective's name is Robert Allen. While that sounds quite English, he is actually of Kurdish ancestry. In the areas of Kurdish Turkey or Iraq, the name would be Robar Alan. His Kurdish ancestry will work both for and against him. He may run into immigration problems upon entering Turkey, but th econsulate will halp him there. In Kurdistan, he may run into relatives.

Actually getting into Kurdistan might create problems for Peter as well. It is a war zone. The Kurds are fighting for independence. Turkey has renewed its authorization to attack separatist outposts in Iraq. The Kurds extend into Iran as well.

Questions:

38. If I wanted to follow the Silk Road from Istanbul to China, what Visas and permissions would I have to have?


39. Does the Silk Road map to any regular auto routes across Turkey and Iran today?


40. What would be the best mode of transportation to get from Istanbul to the Iran border?


41. What would be the most likely sect to be guarding the ancient scrolls? Sufi? Zorastrian? Christian? Sunni? Shiite? Other?


42. Now that we have the symbols, what do they mean and how are they used?

Printers' Marks

Here is a great reference from Project Gutenberg on Printers' Marks.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Printers' Marks, by William Roberts

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Printers' Marks
A Chapter in the History of Typography
Author: William Roberts
Release Date: June 1, 2008 [EBook #25663]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINTERS' MARKS ***
Produced by Louise Hope, Stephen Hope and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

THERE are few phases of typography open to the charge of being neglected. An unquestionable exception occurs, however, in relation to Printers’ Marks. This subject is in many respects one of the most interesting in connection with the early printers, who, using devices at first purely as trade marks for the protection of their books against the pirate, soon began to discern their ornamental value, and, consequently, employed the best available artists to design them. Many of these examples are of the greatest bibliographical and general interest, as well as of considerable value in supplementing an important class of illustrations to the printed books, and showing the origin of several typical classes of Book-plates (Ex-Libris). The present Handbook has been written with a view to supplying a readable but accurate account of this neglected chapter in the history of art and bibliography; and it appeals with equal force to the artist or collector. Only one book on the subject, Berjeau’s “Early Dutch, German, and English Printers’ Marks,” has appeared in this viii country, and this, besides being out of print and expensive, is destitute of descriptive letterpress. The principle which determined the selection of the illustrations is of a threefold character: first, the importance of the printer; secondly, the artistic value or interest of the Mark itself; and thirdly, the geographical importance of the city or town in which the Mark first appeared.

If I've correctly interpreted the publication date, it is 1893. He seems to have much more interest in later or "contemporary" marks than in the incunabula, but there is a fair share of those as well. It is an interesting read with lots and lots of samples.

Printers' Marks

Great new breakthrough as I was making notes last night. There are a certain number of printers' marks from which most are derived (fiction). The last degree of mastery in the lore of the guild are the knowledge of the meaning of the 7, 12, or 13 basic marks. These are the marks that will guide Peter and Maddie to the final source. You have to have both the map and the key. The Printers' Marks are the key. Here are possibilities for the basic marks based on my investigation so far.

• The Flag


• The Anchor


• The Disk or Orb


• The Cross or St. Albans' Cross


• The Caduceus or Double-Helix


• The Lozenge


• The Spade or Shield


• The Pyramid or Triangle


• The Chalice or Bowl


• The Scroll


• The Sword


• The Diamond


• The Fleur-de-lis


• The Castle


• The Heart

The final selection will all be unadorned so that no human or animal is portrayed (idolatry) and excludes initials or monograms. I have a fairly large collection of marks that I'll post for illustration as soon as I get them scanned.

Interestingly, Gutenberg himself did not use a mark. The first was the double flag used by Schoeffer and Fust for the Mainz Psalter.

Scenes 9 & 10

Scene 9: Peter Maddie need to get out of the country and head to Turkey, via Mainz. Peter's refusal to "report in" to The Voice causes the Voice to turn up the heat a bit and blow something up or get the police on them. Peter gets another picture of Maddie, and now one of his mother and grandfather as well. Peter looks at a map of Germany and tells the Voice that he needs to find the source of Die Schwarze Fluss in Germany. In reality, he has decided to mobilize the Guild and catches a plane to Frankfurt. He needs more clues as to where the map leads.

Scene 10: A meeting of the guild in Mainz, DE. Maddie is inducted into the first degree of the guild so she can participate. Induction included a tatoo. Also other rites that are performed. From there, they go into an analysis of the map and work out the starting point as Istanbul. They work out that there will be a printer's mark that will lead them to the treasure. They also come up with a hint as to what the treasure is. They have full access to the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. Something in there will give them a vital clue. Note: I need the catalog of documents in the Gutenberg Museum.

Secret Map Realization: They don't really have to connect the dots. That's why you need to have all 12 pages. If you overlay all the dots you get the whole picture. The dots fill in.

Currently working on an expanded outline for the book, working in more characters, sub-plots, and misdirections.

Connect the dots, library security, the silk road

It seems as though I need a library security expert. The Scheide has declined to offer any assistance because of security concerns. The only reason that the Scheide is of particular interest is because that is where the only American Bamberg is located. This will require some creative thinking and a library security resource.

The Scheide Bamberg was originally in the Benedictine convent in Wurzburg which was acquired 200 years ago by Earl Spencer. Thence to Scheide.

My rare books security system for a library would include a secure locking system, of course. Whenever the alarm is triggered, the doors would seal and lock until released after the environment is secure. The room would then be flooded with an inert, non-flamable gas, replacing all the oxygen in the room (argon?). Of course, that means that all humans in the room die. SO, there are breathing apparati at stations in the room. You have to get into a mask before all the air is pumped out. Since this is so radical, I suggest it only for the vault, where the most valuable documents are kept. For individual documents that are on display, a steel case needs to drop over them and seal them up. Yeah, easy, right?

I need to figure out how to get the order of connect the dots figured out. There is always the chance that they could be in alphabetical order. Start with the dot on A and progress to the dot on B. Problem is that all the letters won't be in the rubric and there is a predominance of "T," or some single letter.

The next thing is that the position of the nick on the character could indicate the direction to the next nick in the order. That might work. No one who would normally see the rubric would think twice about seeing nicked letters or imperfect type since it is not meant ot be read or published, but only to be copied in the order presented to the blank spaces. That seems like the most likely at the moment.

The Silk Road ran from Istanbul (Constantinople) through Turkey & Kurdistan, then Iran, and on. The land route fell into disuse in the 1400s with the closing of China and the Ottoman invasion. It would be quite natural to have the map be of the Silk Road.

New questions

I wrote to the director of the Scheide Library for help today. I'm not keen on using real locations for the story for obvious reasons, but basing a mythical location on a real one is certainly within bounds, especially since there are only a dozen copies of the Bamberg extant and one is at the Scheide.

30. Are the volumes at the Scheide in display cases like the British Library?


31. Is it possible for qualified people to examine the volumes outside the sealed environment in which they are kept?


32. Is the Scheide inside the firestone Library or a standalone?


33. Is there much traffic in and out?


34. Is there a known copy of the rubric for the Bamberg?


35. Is there an on-line copy or image of the Bamberg?


36. Where are the other Bambergs?


37. Where did this one come from?

New scenes

Scene 7: A mockup of Princeton University and the Scheide Rare Books Library. Peter & Maddie arrive and scout out the location of the four famous Bibles located there. This is the first time they actually decide to break the law and they doit in what would have been a daring and spectacular way if it were not for the other disaster/distraction that occurs simultaneously. They remove all three volumes of The Bamberg Bible (some 150lbs) and take them to their hotel room or other location. They examine the books intently and discover the pages hidden in the binding. These they remove and then place the repaired Bibles in a Frat house so as to look like an inter-frat rivalry prank. Then Peter and Maddie head out.

Scene 8: Peter & Maddie have to figure out the code. They use high res imagery to analyze the pages. Ultimately they discovere the nicks in the type characters. At first they try a cipher, but when that doesn't yield results, Peter absently connects the dots. He realizes there is might be a pattern. That means that my major clue has to include something about not just knowng the stones, but following them. Something about "My secret I have hidden in the Black River and only he who follows the stones may cross to the other side." the key is that they have to overlay the eight sheets to get the actual map. The map won't make too much sense until they overlay it with a 15th centruy map of Eastern Europe. I'm not positive yet, but I think it will lead them into Kurdistan. I foresee the need to introduce a computer expert on their team and possibly a Kurd.

Guild rituals

The next step here is to establish what the guild rituals are. For that, I needed the formula for Gutenberg's ink, especially to determine the metal content. Here is what I found first:

The ink used by Gutenberg was also a new development. It was not really ink at all, more like a varnish or oil paint. Unlike writing-ink it is oil-based, not based on water. Water-based ink would simply run off the metal types whereas the thick, viscous oil-based varnish sticks to them.

The black colouring of the ink is carbon - perhaps lamp black. Under the microscope, small reflective grains are visible distributed randomly throughout the ink. They are likely to be graphite - highly ordered carbon. These particles may be intended to improve the quality of the ink or be a by-product of the processing of the carbon to make the ink. More information on this analysis.

Gutenberg's printer's ink is distinctive in having a glittering surface. This is because of its high level of metal content, in particular copper, lead and titanium. It also contains sulphur.

The printer's ink was made up in batches, and was of course hand-made. Cyclotron analysis has enabled us to distinguish between batches and that has enabled us to understand much more about how the work was organised in Gutenberg's workshop.
The British Library

This is significantly different from the Iron Gall Ink that Jason mentioned in a previous comment that was used by scribes. It was made from iron salts and tannin from vegetable sources.

The ink was generally prepared by adding some ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) to a solution of gallotannic acid, but any iron ion donor can be used. The tannic acid was usually extracted from oak galls (also known as "oak apples" or more correctly Oak marble galls), or galls of other trees; hence the name. Fermentation or hydrolysis of the extract releases gallic acid, which yields a darker black ink. The fermented extract is combined with the ferrous sulfate and a binder such as gum arabic.

After filtering, the resulting pale-gray solution was used to write on paper or vellum. A well-prepared ink would gradually darken to an intense purplish black. The resulting marks would adhere firmly to the vellum or parchment, and (unlike india ink or other formulas) could not be erased by rubbing or washing — only by actually scraping off a thin layer of the writing surface.

That it can be completely removed was sufficient to allow this ink, or a galloferric ink with added carbon black, (lamp black) to be used in making Torah scrolls - if a letter is ever found cracked, common with a vellum document rolled and rerolled daily, it must be removed in its entirety before it is redrawn for the scroll to remain ritually pure. This has led to many a "red" Torah where over the years the ink reacted with oxygen and changed to a reddish color, which is not kosher for a Sefer Torah (the ink must be black).
Wikipedia

I'm thinking that because of Gutenberg's association with the goldsmith's guild, the secret craftsmen's association that holds the Gutenberg secret is called something to do with precious metals, smithing, and founding. It could be a Smiths and Typefounders Union. Something like "The Worshipful Company of Smiths and Tyhpefounders," or "The Revered Font of Gold and Metal Workers," or "The Secret Council of Engravers and Fontographers."

Isaac Newton believed in the medicinal properties of taking a little Mercury internally each day. I'm guessing that a little heavy metal in the guildmember's diet would be appropriate.

So there would have to be an initiation ritual, obviously. There are lots of different examples of these to draw from. In addition to initiation there is the "Bringing of the Book," the "Inking of the Mark," and the "Taking of an Apprentice." Those four will do for starters. At least one of these includes a communion with ink; one involves tatooing; one involves invocations and presentation of a reading from an ancient book.

Regarding the initiation:

Special rituals and requirements for new members of a group are called initiation rituals. Many social organizations are quite demanding of new members. Anthropologists have a term—mortification rituals—for initiation ceremonies that inflict pain or humiliation or otherwise mortify the new member of the group. To mortify is, literally, to threaten death, and mortification rituals often threaten death either actually or symbolically.

What are mortification rituals? For example, in the initiation ritual for the Freemasons, the candidate is blindfolded and then led around by a rope around his neck. As the candidate approaches the oath of secrecy, the sharp point of a sword is place against his left breast. The Skull and Bones secret society at Yale puts a new member into a coffin. Members chant at him and he is "reborn" into the society.

Mortification rituals encourage the comraderie that results from shared experiences of hardship, familiar to any war veteran. Also, as implied by cognitive dissonance theory, people who sacrifice for a group are more likely to adopt a positive attitude toward the group. Once they have engaged in behavior that implies that group membership is worth paying a high price, they are likely to convince themselves that group membership is very valuable. To feel otherwise would make it hard to explain why they went through the trouble and discomfort involved in joining the group.

Mystery also plays a role in group cohesion. When a new member is recruited to a "secret society" or similar organization, promises are shared, oaths recited, sacred responsibilities pronounced and accepted. Access is allowed to secret writings or places.

Consider the typical graduation ceremony at a college or university. Students and faculty in long flowing robes listen to speakers make weighty pronouncements. Dignitaries hand out scrolls. It is an echo of ancient rites signifying initiation into a guild consisting of the educated elite.
Initiation Rituals

For information on Masonic ritual (old) see Duncan's Masonic Ritual

A name for the guild

By 1700 (at least, maybe much earlier), the wayzgoose mentioned in my January 26 post was being celebrated on or about August 24, St. Bartholomew's Day. He was the patron of the book binders guild and The Gutenberg Bible was said to have been finished on August 24, 1456.

Now on to names for the rival guilds that might be considered. There is a Worshipful Company of Scriveners in London that is mostly notaries. They do legal document work. (http://www.scriveners.org.uk/) The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is a London Livery company founded in 1403. It was originally booksellers, illuminators, and bookbinders, but by the time the company received its royal charter of incorporation in 1557 it included printers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Stationers_and_Newspaper_Makers)

I'm thinking that my Gutenberg-based guild might be called the Honorable Brotherhood of Scriveners, Typesetters, and Pressmen. The Aldine-based guild would be called the Fraternal Order of Printers and Scribes. These could work out to be important names, so I'll let them stew a while before solidifying it. There are Worshipful Companies, Fraternal Orders, Honorable Brotherhoods, Royal Guilds, Societies, Unions, and Associations. Lots of info regarding the development of Guilds in various countries at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07066c.htm. "Guilds were voluntary associations for religious, social, and commercial purposes. These associations, which attained their highest development among the Teutonic nations, especially the English, during the Middle Ages..."

More questions

Now, I am back to the beginning.

25. Who wants something from the Library of Alexandria so badly that he will blow up buildings and kill people to manipulate Peter & Maddie to get it?


26. What is it?


27. Why is it so valuable?


28. Even if it was both the library and the temple treasure, is that enough to motivate the story?


29. Is The Voice a member of one of the Guild factions, or is Peter being blocked or dogged by the Aldines as well?

I'm thinking that Peter & his grandfater do a bit of communicating by sign language. He teaches Maddie some and later they recognize a rival or possible ally because they see him signing.

I really need to flesh out some of the other characters that are going to be involved in this. So far I have the vague notion that there is a bomber and a detective of some sort, but nothing more stable than that. I can't build a complex enough storyline unless I have more players.

What the Printers Guild knows

First - I'm not a Master Printer. I'm familiar with a wide range of printing and publishing technologies and a pretty extensive knowledge of the history of printing. So, understand that this is a fictionalsummation of what could feasibly be hidden in a mystery cult of printers (similar to what The Masons are to masonry & bricklaying.)

From medieval times as far back as the Incunabula (1455-1505) there has been a party or ceremony in the fall - typically October - called a wayzgoose. As it has come down to us, it was a feast given by the printer for his employees that ostensibly marked the beginning of "working by candlelight." This was also the time of initiation. New apprentices were recognized by their masters and new journeymen and master printers were recognized by the Guild. Among the masters, it was also an initiation into the mysteries of printing. It was said that a printer upon this initiation became a master of "the black arts." We have always assumed that the reference was to the black ink that printers used, but we discover that there were similar rituals and initiations among scribes for centuries before Gutenberg's inventions.

What has been passed down of the mysteries is more than how to make a printer's hat from newspaper. There is the legend that Gutenberg printed a book that contained the ancient secrets of alchemy from which the printing arts evolved. This is why Nicolas Flamel, in the encoded book he gave his son, forbade anyone but his children and scribes to read it.

Beside the heritage of Gutenberg, we also have the legend of the hidden treasure described in Aldus Manutius's "Hypnerotomachia Poliphilli." There are emerging from this, three schools of mystery: 1. the Gutenberg camp; 2. the Aldine camp; 3. those who believe either both or neither. Of course, among these, there is considerable rivalry between the Gutenbergs and the Aldines.

Other secrets of the printer's guild talk of formulae that are elixirs in the form of inks, precious metals, like silver made from lead type, and treasured volumes that have been hidden away so that libraries and museums cannot hoard them. There is much, also, regarding sign language because many deaf people work on both presses and typesetting machines. In addition to the traditional national sign lanugages, each Guild has its own secret signs.

So, we have an entire secret society made up of skilled craftsmen who consider themselves the guardians of the word and the secrets of alchemie and ancient texts, complete with rivalries between factions and secret languages.

The Contemporary Backstory

The Druckers are and have been a family of printers for generations. The name Drucker is German for "printer." Peter's fater was killed in a printshop accident when he fell into a high-speed Web press. His mother, frightened that it was not an accident, forebade any contact between Peter and his grandfater save Christmas and birthday cards and the grandfather's one gift of a subscription to a boy's magazine.

In fact, Francis Drucker, the grandfather, wrote and printed the quarterly magazine himself and there was a small subscription base. It seemed a pretty basic magazine focused on solving puzzles and telling exciting stories. In fact, it was a training magazine that Francis used to impart bits of wisdom and lore that he would have passed directly to Peter if he had been allowed more contact. Francis operated his publication from a remote facility near El Centro, CA.

Peter's inborn love of books led him to study library science in school, but when, at age 21, he received a ticket to visit his grandfather, he fell in love with presses. He was, however, also in love with the new desktop publishing and computer technology. Nonetheless, Francis initiated Peter into the mysteries of the Printer's guild. These mysteries included legends of another Gutenberg book, a hidden treasure, and the people who took them seriously. Peter traveled as an expert in DTP, training and assisting conversions to computerized processes, but he continued to complete his studies in library science, now determined to gain access to rare books that might hold the key to the printers' mysteries.

Hence, Peter was well-acquainted with the legends of gutenberg's other book long before The Voice contacted him. In fact, that seems to be why The mysterious Voice wanted Peter to be the one who went on the quest and solved the problem.

Is there an Aldine conspiracy?

Was there an Aldine conspiracy? I'm not really ready to commit one way or the other, but if there was, I imagine that it would play out like this.

Aldus Manutius moved to Venice at the end of the 15th century and set up a print shop focused on the Greek & Latin Classics. In themidst of this he brings out a volume that sounded remotely classical, but that was erotic, disjointed, and heavily illustrated - apparently partially encoded. The book ~1505 was "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphilli" (THP). It has long been assumed that the book was a book of clues to a hidden treasure.

What if the original map did not get to the vatican, but was switched yet again with a meaningless map that was hidden in the Vatican. Then years later, the courier, whoever that was, makes a side-trip to visit a printer of classics who would love to get his hands on the library of Alexandria.

He convinces Aldus that the map is authentic and enlists his support in preserving it. They succeed in following the map, but it leads nowhere due to Gutenberg's doctoring. Frustrated, Aldus decides to preserve the map for his heirs and does so by hiding bits of it in the pictures and text of THP. The Aldines have been trying to make sense of the original map ever since. They believe the key to the map is in the mysterious other book of Gutenberg.

The 15th Century Backstory

The premise is that sometime prior to the Library of Alexandria having been burned in 48 BCE, the best texts were moved to Carthage. When the Treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem were recaptured from Carthage in 534CE, the texts of the Library of Alexandria were combined with it and moved to Constantinople. When the treasures were moved back to Jerusalem about 2 centuries later, the texts were left in Constantinople, forgotten until the Turks captured the city in 1453. At this time (1453) The Gutenberg Bible was nearing completion. It was released in 1455. That is the historical context. What follows is the storyline I've devised.

In late 1453 or early 1454, an emissary of the Turks, having heard that nearly two hundred copies of The Bible had been produced on a printing press and hearing of Gutenberg's reputation as an alchemist, approached Johannes Gutenberg in secret, claiming to have found a text that held all the ancient secrets of alchemie from Egypt. He was asked if he could reproduce that text with the printing press, since it would most certainly disprove vast portions of both Christian and Islamic beliefs.. Gutenberg, intrigued by the idea, wanted to see some proof of this ancient document. The emissary promised to take him to the book. Gutenberg left the workshop in the hands of his assistant, Peter Schoeffer, and accompanied the emissary to Constantinople. There he was shown the remains of the Library of Alexandria.

This, however, was only part of the remaining texts as transferrence had already begun to a new location in eastern Turkey without the emissary's knowledge. The emissary managed to steal a map to the new location and gave it to Gutenberg. The emissary was caught and executed, but Gutenberg escaped back to Mainz with the map. He began a process of deciphering the cryptic map in his private workshop, intending to travel to the library and retrieve the precious text on alchemie. That is when Fust sued and in early 1455 took over ownership of the entire Bible printing operation.

Gutenberg shared the information with two friends-- Dieter von Isenburg, later to become Archbishop of Mainz, and Dr. Conrad Humery. While the reformist Dieter was anxious to expose falacies of the Bible, Humery advised against printing it or even letting anyone in the church know about the map. The church, they assumed would conceal or even burn the manuscript before it could be exposed. So, Gutenberg set about encoding the directons in type. Thinking that Gutenberg had a new, lucrative business which he had funded with Fust's investment in the printing house (and, indeed, that Gutenberg might actually have succeeded in making gold from base metals, Fust sued for his portion of the new business. When Gutenberg refused to settle, the Archbishop's court found in favor of Fust and awarded Gutenberg's share of the Bible printing operation to Fust.

In 1460, Dieter von Isenburg ascended to the Archbishopric of Mainz, starting a religious feud with conservatives supported by the Pope Pius II. Adolf II von Nassau took the pope's part to invade Mainz and remove Dieter from his throne. In the process of "The Mainzer Feud," in 1462, Adolf killed 400 civilians in Mainz and drove another 400 into exile, including Gutenberg who fled with his original type matrices (larger than that used for the 42-line Bible) and went to Bamberg. Here, Gutenberg finally solved the problem of encoding the map. He printed the Bamberg Bible, also called the 36-line Bible, with his original typeface. However, this was not "Gutenberg's Other Book." Gutenberg also printed a 12-page rubric for the Bible. The rubric was all the missing characters in the text that the scribe was to fill in with red ink. In the type of the rubric, Gutenberg nicked characters in such a way that if a tracing were made connecting the nicks like dots, the map of the location of the Library of Alexandria would be revealed.

Whe he was finished, Gutenberg altered the original map so that it could not be followed, then returned to Mainz. He surrendered the map to Archbishop Adolf along with the story of what it led to, knowing that the conservative man would forward it to the Vatican, where presumably it lies today. ARchbishop Adolf commended Gutenbgerg for bringing the map to the church, making Gutenberg a courtier or Hofmann of the court with a suitable pension to keep him in comfort for the remaining three to five years of his life. Gutenberg was dead by February of 1468.

Only eight full copies of the Bamberg Bible are still extant, all on paper. It happens that when Gutenberg died, his workshop and all the items in it, including one copy of the Bamberg Bible were inherited by Dr. Humery. What Humery did not know was that the original rubric had been used as binding papers in the book (of three volumes, a total of over 1600 pages). In the Bible was also a letter from Gutenberg to Dr. Humery that said in part, "My secret I have hidden in the Black River, and only he who can follow the stones may find it. The key is in my other book." The letter became separated from the book, and came into the hands of the Collector.

As it happened, that copy of the Bamberg Bible came into the possession of William H. Scheide of Princeton and along with copies of the 42-line Bible, the Mentelin Bible, and the 1462 Bible is housed in the Scheide Library at Princeton University.

So, as it turns out, Peter and Maddie don't have to go to Bamberg or London to find the right Bamberg Bible, but they do have to get access to the Bible at Princeton and get the cover papers out of it to discover what is there. Simple, eh?

Remember, even though the dates and people mentioned herein are real, this story and progression of events is my fiction. In the following image, notice the bottom edge. This is the inside back cover of the Library of Congress 42-line Bible. It is on that under paper in the back of the Bamberg Bible that the rubric is concealed.

Where the Temple Treasure/Library of Alexandria went

In 70 BCE the Romans looted the temple at Jerusalem and took its treasures to Rome. After the sack of Rome in 455 CE, the Vandals took the treasure to Carthage.

"The emperor Justinian I (527–565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of the former Diocese of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander Belisarius anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. After the victory, in 534, the Temple treasure of Jerusalem, looted by the Romans in 70 AD and taken to Carthage by the Vandals after their sack of Rome in 455, was brought to Constantinople and deposited for a time, perhaps in the church of St Polyeuctus, before being returned to Jerusalem in either the Church of the Resurrection or the New Church." (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople)

I'm suggesting that the Library of Alexandria was moved from Alexandria to Carthage in ~48 BCE and was secreted there until it was joined by the temple treasures in 455. When Justinian I brought the Temple treasure of Jerusalem to Constantinople in 534, the treasures of the Library of Alexandria came with it. I'm missing a date for the return to Jerusalem of the treasures, but I'm assuming that at that time, the library scrolls were separated from the scrolls of the temple and made there way past Jerusalem to Kurdistan (a section of Turkey and Iraq, etc. that is highly disputed), or it went to Armenia. It was hidden in a desert cave somewhere between approximately Lake Van and the Caspian Sea. I'll get more specific as I do more research.

Or... the Temple treasures were returned to Jerusalem, but the Library remained in Constantinople until 1453, when the Turks invaded and took over the city. They demolished the Church of the Holy Apostles to make way for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror. In this time, exactly when Gutenberg was supposed to be finishing the printing of The Bible in Mainz and then sued by Fust for channeling money to a different enterprise, the Turks uncovered the Library and sent the volumes to the East. Gutenberg saw them when they were being shipped and recorded the location in eastern Turkey as their resting point in his "other book." This is what he was working on in 1455 and following. It was for this service that Archbishop Adolf rewarded Gutenberg. (Maybe????)

Puzzles and Obstacles

In order to solve the mystery and save the ... Peter and Maddie have to solve several puzzles and overcome several obstacles. Here's a start to the list.

• What it means to be hidden in The Black River


• What document is Gutenberg's other book


• How to get access to this rare manuscript


• How to decipher the Black River code


• Where the code says to go


• How to get into the country/facility where the "treasure" is located


• How to identify the right scroll once they get there


• How to get it and prevent The Voice or anyone else from getting it/killing them


• What the secret of "The Wisdome of Ptolemy" is

Continuing scenes

It's time to start thinking about where I'm sending my heroes. In the third movement, Peter & Maddie are given a manuscript by the Collector that he believes contains "the clue" that they will need to find Gutenberg's other book. Along with it, they are given a ticket to Germany so they can do research at the Gutenberg museum in Mainz.

Scene 4: The go to the airport to discover that police are showing up. Instead of going to their gate, they rent a car and leave the airport as a new glass atrium explodes. They take off driving cross-country. Time for Peter and Maddie to have it out. No Jason-Bourne-I'm-wounded-but-with-super-strength-I-still-go-on. The drama and exhaustion come from the non-stop drive from S.E. U.S. to El Centro, CA. The scene ends with them greeting Peter's grandfater somewhere near El Centro.

Scene 5: Meeting with grandfather covers three points: *opportunity to stop and examine the manuscript and leave it in grandfather's care. * opportunity to fill in backstory on Peter's family and the Gutenberg quest. * new I.D. & credentials for Peter & Maddie.

Scene 6: Peter and Maddie are motivated to move from Grandfather's care by two things.

• First, the clue they unravel from the manuscript suggests they need to examine the Bamberg Bible. (Where is it?)


• Second, Peter gets a picture message on the phone The Voice gave him that shows him with Maddie in a restaurant in downtown Elcentro. The Voice knows where they are.

Grandfather battens down the retreat and Peter & Maddie head out right ahead of the police.

An idea to kick around

Suppose the Library of Alexandria was secretly moved to Byzantium. It was "underground." Constantine discovered this and built Hagia Sophia over it. By the time the Muslims destroyed Sophia, the library had been moved secretly again, virst to Nicea and then to its current resting place where it was revealed to Gutenberg.

So this idea would put the quest in the category of treasure-hunting. It would be Indiana Jones meets The DaVinci Code, which, in fact, is how I've often positioned it. There is a huge treasure, and the artifacts could change the way we perceive things. Those make good stories.

Should I try for something that is either more world-endangering (i.e. terrorists looking for this because it has the secret to a new weapon), or more esoteric (i.e. focusing more on arcane knowledge of alchemie)? There may be elements of each that I could work into it, but still keep Peter's role in searching for the lost library. This would play well off my former concept of the rivalry with the Aldines. Two ancient classicist cults trying to claim the world's greatest library. In the arcane mode, I could use a Nostradamus prophecy that indicates Peter would eventually rise to find the treasure. That supports the ability of The Voice to plan years in advance for the bombings that would force Peter to flee to him.

This puts the whole thing further out in the urban fantasy category - somewhat like what I did with The Props Master. I think it is a little harder to make that relevant. People find it a bit harder to relate to the magical prophecy concept than to the hardcore thriller where an ordinary guy suddenly has to do an extraordinary task.

Still, there is the idea that The Collecter/Voice particularly wants a specific scroll out of the library because of what it contains and is content to leave all the others where they are. He might want, say, a scroll called "The Wisdom of Ptolemy" that would contain all the secrets of alchemie and believe that flooding the market with all the library would adversely effect the ancient documents market.

That creates a clear danger to Maddie and Peter. Once the Voice has the one document that he wants, they are a liability and could be buried with the rest of the library. So they have to work on an escape plan for after the discovery. That's a good time to get the detective in action to save them. The old "pursuing one step behind, he catches up with htem just at the crucial moment."

What's so valuable?

Talked to Richard this week about a possiblity of smuggling silver as lead type. It would be possible, but not worthwhile. It just isn't valuable enough. Then there is using the formula to mimic silver, but again, there isn't enough difference between the value of the lements to make the work worthwhile.

The value has to come in one of three(??) areas.

• The actual monetary value of the hidden treasure, as in Hypnerotamachia Polyphilli or Templar Treasure or El Dorado.


• The value of the secret itself to the keeper, like Nicolas Flamel & The Philosopher's Stone, location of the Fountain of Youth, The Holy Grail


• The value is in the negative power of the object or its ability to control others, be used as a weapon, or change the way people believe. Examples are The Lost Ark, Atomic Bomb, Lead into Gold, DaVincia Code.

The story is about books. Possibly the greatest "book event" prior to Gutenberg was the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Is it possible that the books of Alexandria were actually removed before Caesar's visit and that the buring was staged as a condemnation of Caesar's barbaric invasion? If so, where did the books go? The Library of Alexandria was built in the beginning of the 4th century BCE reign of Ptolemy I. It was burned in 48 BCE.

Constantinople: Built on the site of the ancient Byzantium (original construction around 671-662BCE) and was made the capital of the Roman empire by Constantine in May 330 CE. In 534CE, the Temple treasure of Jerusalem, looted by Romans in 70CE, was recaptured from Carthage and taken to Constantinope where it was deposited at the Church of St. Polyeuctus. It was eventually returned to Jerusalem.

The First Nicean Council was in 325 CE
Anthansius, Bishop of Alexandria listed the current canon in his works in 367 CE.

Questions:

22. Where did all the books go?


23. Did Gutenberg see them or know where they were and secret that information in his text?


24. Does this conflict with the treasure of The Templars?

Getting to the urgency

In order to make this work as a thriller, I have to keep Maddie and Peter on the run from the first chapter on. So this is what I have in mind and the research questions that it brings up.

Maddie & Peter escape from the hospital believing that the voice on the phone has called the police on them. They escape through the emergency room and right into the waiting clutches of the Collector (also referred to as The Voice because they never really see him and only hear him on the phone).

In reality, the police have been informed there is a bomb at the hospital. I'm thinking there actually is a bomb that blows up another glass front edifice. It could be why the police keep thurning up where Peter is, because a bomb-threat has been called in. They look at security footage and see Peter leaving the building before each one. The Voice is calling in the tip and then alerting Peter that the police are closing in. The key to the explosion pattern is that the buildings have all been built in thepast 10 years and all have a glass facade.
Glass could figure into the alchemical element as well. After all, you take sand and turn it into transparent glass. Why wouldn't you think you could transmute other elements as well?

I believe that The Voice is a wealthy donor and that each of the buildings have been something he contributed substantially to in the past 10-15 years. The buildings all have an atrium or glass facade that implodes. Ultimately it is shown that each of the glass structures was wired with an explosive when it was built.

When it is time for the mystery to be solved, The Voice cannot leave his demolitions expert at large, so he arranges to have him too close to an explosion and he is killed. No connection to the Voice is left except Peter & Maddie.

Questions:

17. Does Maddie consciously contact The Voice to keep him apprised of their location, or is she tagged with a homing device?


18. Is it beyond the imagination to make an explosive glass?


19. How does the accomplice rig the explosions?


20. How do Peter & Maddie expose The Voice and bring him to justice?


21. Is Maddie good or bad?

An answer

9. What is the formula?
   This is not the world's most elegant solution, but it works:

Lead at 1.34 g/cm³
Tin at 7.31 g/cm³
Antimony at 6.697 g/cm³
Silver at 10.49 g/cm³

(11.34*(1-x) + 7.31(1+x))/2 = 10.49
11.34-11.34x + 7.31 +7.31x = 20.98
18.65 -4.03x = 20.98
-4.03x = 2.33
x = -0.63385742

Therefore:
.7890819 cm³ Lead plus .2109181 cm³ Tin weighs the same by volume as 1 cm³ Silver

Using the same formula:
.81692871 cm³ Lead plus .18307129 cm³ Antimony also weighs the same by volume as 1 cm³ Silver.

Add the two formulas together and divide by two, the final formula is
0.803005305 cm³ Lead
0.105459050 cm³ Tin
0.091535645 cm³ Antimony
= by weight by volume of 1.0 cm³ Silver

The proportions are remarkably similar to the proportions of Lead, Tin, and Antimony found in Lead type, forged by Gutenberg.

Waking up in a hospital

Okay, so what does it feel like to wake up in a hospital?

16. Timing - explosion is on Friday night at the beginning of spring break. He wakes up "a few days" later. How many days??

I could see light. It was shining in my eyes. I tried to close them, but something was holding them open. I tried to speak, but no sound came out. In fact, there was no sound anywhere. When the light went out, I was alone in dark silence.

Ooops. I wasn't going to write this as a first person story. Here we go again, trying the same thing as a third person limited POV.

There was a light shining in Peter's eyes. Something was holding them open, so he couldn't escape the light. He tried to speak, but no sound came out. In fact, there was no sound anywhere. When the light finally faded, he was alone again in silent darkness.

Actually, I think the third person makes it a stronger passage, even through the blur of a first draft. Revision comes later.