When Dan Brown tasted mega-success with his book The Da Vinci Code (selling upwards of 80 million copies), he did so on the back of seminal research by the team of Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, with their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. But at that time, Brown was just the most recent of a number of authors and artists who had used this book – based on original research by Henry Lincoln in the 1960s – as their inspiration. The entire topic of the Priory of Sion and the mystery of Rennes le Chateau would likely have never ‘caught fire’ in the English language speaking world without the groundwork laid by Lincoln.
But with Henry now in his 80s, plans are now being made to archive and preserve the original research and documentation related to this influential body of work. For those who would like to assist in this goal, an IndieGoGo fund-raising project is now underway to help set this archive up:
From its inception, one man has been intimately involved in the extraordinary research which has led to changes in the world’s thinking about Christianity, the role of women and … even more importantly … the realization that we have much still to learn about the beliefs, the knowledge and the skills of our remote ancestors.
Now in his ninth decade, the necessity to preserve Henry Lincoln’s archive has become a priority.
Documents, photographs, recordings, books, films, diagrams, scripts, maps and manuscripts demonstrate the growth of the hypotheses and the many detours and stumbling blocks, which have led to new ideas and new attitudes. Future scholars will find that the contents of this archive can help in the understanding of many of the changes in society, which came in the second half of the twentieth century.
Whether Henry Lincoln’s arguments are accepted or not, their effect has been undeniable.
While it would be nice to see someone like Dan Brown chip in for such a worthwhile project, I’m sure there’s enough interest in the wider community to get this project to it’s goal.
