"While I was doing my research for my Ph.D., I found the Chignon Parchment in the Vatican Secret Archives,” says The Templars: The Secret History Revealed author Barbara Frale “I couldn’t quite believe it! The first people to whom I showed my research thought I was crazy. Other people thought I was a genius.”

     The Chignon Parchment is a record of the trial of the Templar leadership authorized by Pope Clement V. The document reveals details of the orders’ scandalous secret initiation ceremony. It also reveals that the Grand Master and other high ranking Templars were found innocent.

     In her excellent new book Barbara Frale explains how the Templars transformed from being monks and warriors to being disbanded. The Templars were entrusted with the money to fight the Crusades against the Muslims. But they become so rich and powerful they become a threat to royal houses in Europe and the Catholic church. France’s King Philip IV, plots their downfall. He gets a secret loan from the Templars, who thus unwittingly began their own destruction. The final act was written by Pope Clement V who disbanded the organization.

     Frale’s Italian editor is Ugo Berti at Il Mulino. She’s never met her editor of the American edition, Casey Ebro at Arcade Publishing. The two correspond by email.

     “I studied history at university and wrote my thesis on the Templars in 1993, way before Dan Brown (of The Da Vinci Code fame) popularized the subject,” says Casey Ebro. “So when I learned about the book, I was over the moon with excitement. After I’d acquired it, a very good editor friend agreed to pass on my request for a foreword to Umberto Eco! And he agreed! Days like that are why I’m an editor.”

     Eco, an Italian philosopher and novelist, is known for writing The Name of the Rose, which was made into a film starring Sean Connery, and for writing Foucault’s Pendulum, a novel about a plot created by the Medieval Templars to take over the modern world.

     The popularity of her Templars book took Frale by surprise. “It's just a little book, but suddenly I was known around the world in certain circles.”

     The Templars: The Secret History Revealed is a must-read for anyone with a more than passing interest in the Templars and this historical era. The book is scholarly, but a fascinating read. It’s too bad the book lacks maps to give a clear picture of where things happen.

     Barbara Frale lives in Viterbo, Italy, where she was born. She’s a historian and an archivist. She’s written four historical essays. Her two historical essays about the Shroud of Turin will be published by Il Mulino in 2009.
 

The Templars: The Secret History Revealed by Barbara Frale. Hardcover, 232 pages. Publisher: Arcade Publishing, January 12, 2009, Language: English ISBN: 9781559708890