DaVinci Code Puzzle
Golden, Colorado: December 30, 2007

We worked on the puzzle Grandma Kitty gave us for Christmas. The puzzle chronicles the Mona Lisa painting and has some pictures that go with a book of questions about the painting:


Most notably, there was a timeline on the puzzle of the life of the painting:

• 1492: Leonardo born in Vinci, Italy
• 1482: Works as engineer, architect, painter in Milan
• 1503: Begins four year process of painting Mona Lisa
• 1507: Appointed painter and engineer at the court of Louis XII in France
• 1519: Leonardo dies at 67 near Amboise, France
• 1800: Mona Lisa hangs in Napoleon's bedroom in the Tulleries
• 1804: Mona Lisa installed in Louvre - Grand Gallery
• 1911: August 11, The theft of Mona Lisa is discovered
• 1911: Sept. 7, French detectives arrest Guillaume Apollinaire
• 1911: Sept., Apollinaire implicated Pablo Picasso
• 1913: Dec 11, Mona Lisa is discovered in the bottom of a trunk
• 1913: Dec 11: Vincenzo Perugia is arrested for the theft of Mona Lisa
• 1914: January 4: Mona Lisa returned to the Louvre's Salon Carre
• Present Day: International agreement Mona Lisa will hang in the Louvre forever

It also came with a black light (simulating a UV light) to reveal more "secrets":


These messages included:

1. "An ancient method for encoding additional messages into art is called gematria. Gematria assigns words number values. For example: a simple Latin code for values to letters is used to calculate Mona Lisa:

   Mona Lisa = (13+15+14+1) + (12+9+19+1) = 84

   Now try Leonardo or La Giaconda (another name for Mona Lisa) - notice what number is always obtained?"
2. "Leonardo also used 84 as the circumference of Mona Lisa. the width of Mona Lisa is considered 1 Venetian cubit. Thus three circles in width and four circles in height equal 18 and 24 respectively.

   Circumference = 2(18+24) = 84

3. Across the face of Mona Lisa was written "So Dark the Con of Man". This is from the DavVinci Code, where Jacques Sauniere leaves this message for his granddaughter. It decodes to "Madonna of the Rocks", which is where he hid the vault key.