diff --git a/src/core.js b/src/core.js
index 8e07078ef..5faac7621 100644
--- a/src/core.js
+++ b/src/core.js
@@ -398,10 +398,16 @@ var PDFDocument = (function PDFDocumentClosure() {
     get linearization() {
       var length = this.stream.length;
       var linearization = false;
-      if (length) {
-        linearization = new Linearization(this.stream);
-        if (linearization.length != length)
-          linearization = false;
+      try {
+        if (length) {
+          linearization = new Linearization(this.stream);
+          if (linearization.length != length)
+            linearization = false;
+        }
+      } catch (err) {
+        warn('since pdf is broken pdf.js is trying to recover it ' +
+             'by indexing the object; ' +
+             'the error in firebug shall have a different origin');
       }
       // shadow the prototype getter with a data property
       return shadow(this, 'linearization', linearization);