Was it right for Dan Brown to call her "Magdalene"?

Maybe Pierino da Vinci? He’s probably the most famous “da Vinci” other than that Leonardo guy.

As for “Magdalene,” I’ve only seen it used either in conjunction with her first name–“Mary Magdalene”–or with the definite article, “The Magdalene.” Same thing in French, too, wherein she’s commonly referred to as “La Madeleine.” In Italian, she’s always “La Maddalena.” I suspect it’s the same in most European languages, and I’d guess that the English version is derived from the French.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces back the Modern English “Magdalene” to Middle English versions like “Magdalein,” “Magdaleyne,” “Magdeleyne,” all of which included either “Maria” or a definite article (the OED cites Chaucer as a 14th-century example: “Iudas grucched agayns the Magdeleyne” from the Parson’s Tale–my bolding). And that usage has remained consistent throughout the history of Modern English.

It’s true that we don’t usually say “The Christ,” even though “Christ” is as much a title as “Magdalene.” That’s only because we don’t traditionally say it that way, whereas we have traditionally said “The Magdalene” in English (and French, and Italian, etc) over the course of several centuries. That’s convention for you–it’s rarely determined by logic.

This usage could very well change in the future. But I don’t think Dan Brown is so much anticipating a shift in language conventions as he is, yet again, displaying his cultural and scholarly ignorance. Silly boy.

The test for a novel is whether the characters in the book, as described, should be using that form of the name. A novelist should keep his characters consistent to the sort of people he claims they are. If they are art historians (or some similar sort of scholars), they would say “Leonardo da Vinci” or just “Leonardo”. If they’re not scholars, it’s not too surprising if they say “Da Vinci”. On the other hand, I don’t know of anyone who says “Magdalene”. Everyone, to my knowledge, would say “Mary Magdalene”. Seldom would they just say “Mary”, since that could be confused with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Yes! That was him. Your link reminds me that it was indeed a (superb) bas relief I saw, not a painting.

However, I see he was in fact Leonardo’s nephew, so my point is rendered totally inconclusive.