Langdon and Vittoria go to Vatican City, where four Preferiti, the Cardinals who are candidates for Pope, are kidnapped by the Hassassin, who plans to blow up the Vatican with the antimatter canister and kill the four cardinals under the orders of 'Janus', the leader of the Illuminati.īelieving that the four cardinals will be ritually murdered on the four altars of the 'Path of Illumination', Langdon and Vittoria follow a series of clues left in various churches in and around Rome. After determining the ambigram is authentic, they discover a canister of antimatter from Leonardo's lab is stolen, which will explode in 24 hours when the canister's battery runs out. CERN director Maximilian Kohler calls Vetra's adopted daughter, Vittoria, and Robert Langdon, an expert on symbology and religious history, for help. Leonardo Vetra, one of CERN's top physicists who have discovered how to create antimatter, is murdered, his chest branded with an ambigram of the word ' Illuminati', an ancient anti-religious organization thought extinct.

The 'Illuminati Diamond' mentioned in the book is an ambigram of the four elements that are arranged in the shape of a diamond. The book also contains ambigrams of the words Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, which has served to bring the art of ambigrams to public attention by virtue of the popularity of the book.

Besides the 'Angels & Demons' and ' Illuminati' designs, the title of the book is also presented as an ambigram on the hardcover book jacket, and on the inside cover of the paperback versions. The book contains several ambigrams created by real-life typographer John Langdon. A film adaptation was released on May 15, 2009. Ancient history, architecture, and symbology are also heavily referenced throughout the book. Angels & Demons shares many stylistic literary elements with its sequels, such as conspiracies of secret societies, a single-day time frame, and the Catholic Church. The novel introduces the character Robert Langdon, who recurs as the protagonist of Brown's subsequent novels. Angels & Demons is a 2000 bestselling mystery- thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books and then by Corgi Books.

Dan brown angels and demons book