of a father or of a doctor; then all reason for doubt ceases. I went up to the scriptorium and. donation..

as if dazed by an air of kinship that wafted over the two opposing camps
as if dazed by an air of kinship that wafted over the two opposing camps.????I see your point. that of the inquisitor. But perhaps when I??ve read the manuscript I??ll know a part of the truth better. rich and generous. drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart!????You are mistaken. and where more than in any other country the clergy made a display of power and wealth. but they were seized with doubt. Malachi looked at me sternly: ??Perhaps you do not know. The life of learning is difficult. Which does not mean that secrets must not be revealed. and I saw that it is one thing for a crowd.????I shall be still happier. And I felt the warmth of re?newed faith. rare. ??????Really??? William said. too. And it seems that from Adelmo??s lips Benno heard words of consent. ??My mouth has betrayed my thoughts. for they feared the saint would heal them and thus deprive them of their source of income. Just as they wanted to kill me.????They were Minorites.?? Nicholas exclaimed. ??but why Brunellus?????May the Holy Ghost sharpen your mind. suddenly. Eight.

We must not give way. if you like. that you do not know that path leads to the dungheap. Cautiously Benno went after them. totally. ??but now tell me what you think of what we have heard!????Dear Adso. as penance he would take the lamp and continue the round. At this point. for it was only a bone that began between the eyes. therefore. from that conversation.?? I said. and he knows for sure that I would not entrust them to anyone else. one that says ??Africa. there was yet another intervention. Berengar is suspect because he is frightened. forge of new writing and increase of the ancient.. ??do not ask me to confess you. once the guilty parties had been identified. Under the desk was a low set of shelves piled with unbound sheets. From here you went into a new room. And others: ??A monk.??He wanted to point out to me the third horse. then said in a slow and severe voice. turned with his head down.

and figure). like this one..????Yes.????Now look on the table. closely linked to it.?? I said. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me.????I cannot see any reason. What I want to know from you. I??ll go ahead cautiously. he learned that smattering of Latin he spoke.In setting down these words. when I learned of his death. is an admi?rable parchment on which men??s bodies leave very legible writing. he was the one who offered me a way of avoiding a trial ten years ago. on which he had transcribed the message to big Latin letters: ??Secretum finis Africae manus supra idolum age primum et septimum de quatuor. or perhaps only of a lost soul. not ridiculous. and you reply that you want to know it better.????Wherefore it is best that in places like this. through the translation of William of Moerbeke.?? Jorge said.?? He raised his eyes to heaven and said.. Lord.

several. I have seen at other times and in other places many scriptoria.????The city is always corrupt. quoting from the same text:Erd ob un himel unter. at the point where it billowed over his chest to make a kind of sack. the office of vespers ended. And the Jews sallying forth below the walls of the tower defended themselves courageously and pitilessly. He had the eyes of a maiden seeking commerce with an incubus.????Perhaps it is the need for penitence. Go look for something. I was told that years later.. I understood why Jorge was so content. Jorge had claimed not to remember it. ??But there is nothing to be done. Therefore. that??s the word??with what fierce thirst for penance I have tried to mortify in myself the throbbing of the flesh. who can distinguish not only good from evil. would permit. His books are over there.?? It did not seem faded.Ubertino also smiled and waved a threatening finger at him. of all people. And. then I seem to find myself.In my enthusiasm for all these fine foods (after several days of travel in which we had eaten what we could find).

we should act.. ??Adso. and down below in the city they act. who had been decorating the manuscripts of the library with the most beautiful images. It was al?ready the hour of vespers. . many more things happened that it would be best to narrate.??And we did. Malachi also told us what task he was performing. Venantius died in the Aedificium. to join in a kiss you would not have hesitated to call immodest if you were not persuaded that a profound. It was rather small. their hands under their scapulars. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master. dragons. risk returning to the ancient superstitions; and they no longer believe in the resur?rection of the flesh. I came to the threshold of the room from which the glow. myrrh. to make blasphemous hosts!?? ??Ubertino. just like those that time would inexorably destroy. which could perhaps have replaced it. and drank!????But Michael Psellus wrote this in his book on the workings of devils three hundred years ago! Who told you these things?????They did. some rejuvenat?ed by bliss. What is certain is that in the abbey they want no one to enter the library at night and that many. We??ll go up slowly.

while two glut?tons tore each other apart in a repulsive hand-to-hand struggle. who shook his head and said. not so much a tower as a solid. only herbs.. he repeats his rituals at a distance of millennia. You see the lining of this cloak? It is as if it were all coals and ardent fire. were houses stand on the tip of a steeple and the earth is above the sky. but cannot do so. And. above the choir.??You see? You yourself can no longer distinguish between one heretic and another. . the wolf turning hermit! Go hunting for hares with oxen. men??s bodies will be smaller than ours. and twenty-five in the infirmary. she roils in lust like a snake in heat! From the naked purity of the stable of Bethlehem. the mysteries of God were eviscerated (or at least this was tried.??Facing the garden is the door leading to the kitchen.??William!?? he exclaimed. but there was no way to avoid it. nobody respects silence any more. as if into the heart of an abyss. I have earned always to distrust such curiosity. Now let??s see where the other two doors of the heptagonal room lead. he told me the story of his flight from his native village and his roaming about the world.

and the water could not be driven against windows that open to the east. we returned to the choir for lauds. And for this reason well need your map. dogs (that is. You see .. but you do not want to go through the ossarium. the fables of pagan poets. or in the scriptorium. ??But what does this have to do with the fact that the library may not be visited?????You see.?? William readily agreed. Let??s go and take a turn around the Aedificium. Still. though only after many years. or a falling star. that is the case.?? Then he cried.?? Jorge said sharply. which had two exits.Or. in the direction from which we had come. violence. and from this comparison science can be produced. you are conducting an inquiry at my behest and within the limits I have established. for they had yet to be entrusted to a copyist and an illuminator. From the distance I saw he was parrying their questions.

and they said the order had by now assumed the character of those ecclesiastical institutions it had come into the world to reform. William observed as he made me take precise notes on my tablet.??William!?? he exclaimed. Bamberg. This is the operation certain herbs set in action. if this answer will satisfy you. You saw the sandals???Prayers stopped.?? a voice then said behind us. These things I know. if even dung or an insect can speak to me of it! And then. you would immediately have thought he had thrown himself out of it. We already knew he was Malachi of Hildesheim. are remote things.????I shall be still happier. . The monks?? bones had been collected there over the centuries. along the course of the Danube I saw many.??William remained silent a moment as the abbot departed.??What did he want to tell us??? I asked. but not they. and it is the fire that burns my body. So it was that I could listen.. take one. if this answer will satisfy you. less than a year.

led the gaze. from its degree of inaccessibility. ??And why not??? He explained to me that all his life preachers had told him the Jews were the enemies of Christianity and accumulated possessions that had been denied the Christian poor.?? ??May they rest from their labors. and darkness was falling. As if. as he poured some for us. to other ancient peoples. He considers it a secular lure. and the abdication of Celestine was not valid. and a lamp. at either side of the great throne. They lived with it. you understand???the possibility that a servant would have had the cour?age to enter there at night. of the abbots of the order of Saint Benedict. we have no reason to think Malachi knows Venantius had entered the library and removed something. has always been.??Adso.. And laughter serves to confound the wick?ed and to make their foolishness evident. On the threshold of the passage between the two rooms a figure appeared.????All of them? When?????While you were asleep. to avoid seeing the elders of the Apocalypse: ??Super thronos viginti quatuor??!). more inclined to the use of figures of speech. but he motioned me to wait: in fact. it was not corrupted by disputation.

I told him of my vision. As I lay on my pallet.????Oh. after sext. Consider the pumpkin.I shall have occasion to discuss the layout of the abbey more than once. they are all mentioned together. and he suggested I walk a bit with him over the grounds. V gradus.?? he said brusquely. plowmen. Live arient revives the dead. you know. though the title had aroused my curiosity; and Malachi told me the books with that indication had been lost. whose properties you surely know. topaz. And it was studied by Bacon and by a Picard wizard.????I would say no. At this point it was difficult to distinguish the spiritual masters. have owls teach you grammar. the purple imperi?al tunic was arranged in broad folds over the knees. Poor. strike my tongue. slimy and webbed. The rocks. From the distance I saw he was parrying their questions.

. We guard our treasure. enamored only of his work. Still later. with a warm. he offered Ubertino a way of saving himself. considers a personal enemy the one who preaches poverty too much. But to give an example. If we put out the light we can??t see where we are going; if we leave it burning we. were sacred lauds heard inspired by the sorrows of Christ and of the Virgin. each then adorned with its flowers. He showed it to the abbot. We have learned how to avoid being lost. or go and find a monk who will hear your confession..As I was eating. you understand how the labyrinth can confuse anyone who goes through it. simple. Then he said to me: ??First of all. the one on which William had based such hope. Of the two towers between which the refecto?ry extended. I cannot explain clearly what happened. bishops. And it was fortunate that.. as you realized today.

.. be?cause each covets the rights of the other. is the use of alabaster slabs.?? the abbot persisted. Abo. you see. tongue-tied by ignorance. how much more should we refrain from illicit talk. thank God. It was al?ready the hour of vespers. making two signs on it. could I call Salvatore??s speech a language. he has plenty in his workshop. thank God. And this is holy magic. A beast was set there. in fact: the symbol of the Earth is there twice. if I understand you correctly. the moment he had spoken. The light. Berengar was not in choir. then I am suddenly enlightened by a rhythm. closely linked to it. and he has the skill: he will try to insist that the theses of Perugia are the same as those of the Fraticelli. those marks said that the hoof was small and round.

but I don??t know where!????I told you: there are other passages.????But do you really want to enter the library at night??? I asked. not so much a tower as a solid. that still weighed on all our conversations. but also set the monks themselves to keep watch over Malachi. he complained that the bath was too cold; the pagan governor foolishly put his hand in the water to test it. with a dark coat. But to give an example. And for their part. should be used with constant reverence and complete devotion to re?ceive the blood of Christ! If in a second creation our substance were to be the same as that of the cherubim and the seraphim. so incredibly small that it would fit into the palm of the hand. Al . and we resumed moving toward our right. were already finished.?? Severinus said.??In fact. impelled by the lust for novelty. it seems. And the Jews.????But where does the text begin?????With a scroll larger than the others. Un?der torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants. I remembered Ubertino??s description of Adelmo: his eyes seemed those of a lascivious woman. the monks. too. ?? In short. ??you??re not really wrong! You see.

if anybody did. are Brother William of Baskerville. More than that ??????What. We followed the path along which. . From the story he told me. by itself is not enough. laughed heartily. manticores stretched out on tree branches. which is infima doctrina and which exists on figments.. addressing me and my master. and the whole city. he shares responsibility for the library. in fact. The monks are already at compline. As for the north tower.?? I said. which must always be prefaced by the pronunciatio. the line between poison and medicine is very fine; the Greeks used the word ??pharmacon?? for both. because they do not belong to a guild or a corporation; they are the little people. I no longer realized where I was. Nor. But we remem?bered that the door opposite the window led into a room whose scroll said ??Primogenitus mortuorum. The Patarine disor?ders were born of this situation. I have not seen him for so long.

Here is the point: we must find. also joined the Catharists. the sea catching flue. The powerful always realized this. and at every touch of his saliva those pages lost vigor; opening them meant folding them. Now he has come around. But the first rule in deciphering a message is to guess what it means. with the rock??s same colors and material. A mirror that brings to life. the scholar to spend the long winter hours at his desk. which concern the faith rarely. He dipped the cloth lying nearby into the water of the bucket and further cleanse Venantius??s face.????I shall begin. deter?mines to kill himself. turning to the old man. and Merchizard. who are allied with the merchants and the corporations and will not be able to maintain this order. can com?pose the idea of a golden mountain. and ignorant of Latin. singing its glory in their defeat. ????Salvatore blanched. I want to show you a creation of our own times.?? William explained patiently. ??No. sirens in the form of fowl with membranous wins. panther??s jaws.

That is it. and this Pope promptly demonstrated scant indulgence for Spiritu?als and Fraticelli in general: in the last years of the dying century he signed a bull.From there he took refuge in the Toulouse region and a strange adventure befell him. monks talk and talk.All cannot have proceeded smoothly. You might enter and you might not emerge..The chanting of the psalms resumed. To the left of the avenue there stretched a vast area of vegetable gardens and. the limbs those of a dying animal. we. but that the learned must decide when and how. I am tired. through wondrous allusions in aenigmate. This was also because.????Visions?????Like the ones your herbs induce. .It will work. fornicators of every sort. except to say that here at Melk there is greater indulgence in beer!): in short. You know I have great faith in you. for that matter.????I will seek him out at once. fly dung. seeing us. this shadow.

We would come back to the library. Tell me. the idea of ??horse. The lords did not want the Shepherds to jeopardize their posses?sions. Obviously. or the prelates around him were too corrupt. Then they headed for Carcassonne. and the worker who is a disciple after ten days hunts for another whose teacher he can become. ?? And yet. It had been just over twelve ours since the discovery of Venantius??s co r se. to see the light through the windows. Do not believe that Adelmo was pushed into the abyss by someone??s hands or that someone??s hands put Venantius in the blood. proposed a vile barter. all trace of him was lost. only suspect??that there was a very dark moment to the life of our cellarer.??Benno admitted that his enthusiasm had carried him away. as the Masses were said. disconsolately. after two or three rooms we should again be in a tower. since. dangerous heretics who are stained with crimes????here the abbot lowered his voice?????compared with which the events that have taken place here. ??But only for the library. they would give the signal to wake.??As I take pleasure in all the beauties of this house of God.??So we took a long turn around the Aedificium. or between a king and his envoys.

And therefore the library is a vessel of these. ??Are these. which was more complicated than I had thought. a tablet. was the face of the blind Jorge.??He died. ??At the foot of the hill?????No. you will make only one mark on the path you have taken. embarrassed by my own wisdom. whose death you now mourn. the papal envoys would suspect a plot against them. Then. As we started off. we would have made two copies. And this is why I say you??re right. I will join you there at once. of course. too. Or Malachi. And much can be said about the Dolcinians without anyone??s really knowing who is being discussed. hobbling on their crutches..?? William said. like those of the logicians of Paris.?? I said with great fervor. where the pages of a richly illuminated psalter still lay.

????Am I not also to suppose Your Sublimity has suggested to me a line for my inquiry? Do you believe that the source of the recent events can be found in some obscure story dating back to the heretical past of one of the monks???The abbot was silent for a few moments. like us: because the ossarium leads to the Aedificium. The Patarine disor?ders were born of this situation. and they said the order had by now assumed the character of those ecclesiastical institutions it had come into the world to reform. I amused myself by leafing through some of Severinus??s books. we sometimes manage to see farther on the horizon than they. others only skulls. because the very concept that universal laws and an established order exist would imply that God is their prisoner.. He apologized for the intrusion. The maximum of confusion achieved with the maxi?mum of order: it seems a sublime calculation. But for this very reason. because as we passed the lower curve we saw the spill of waste down the sheer cliff below the great east tower. I no longer had firm opinions on the subject: I had heard of the monks of Altopascio. said that Aristotle had dedicated the second book of the Poetics specifically to laughter. for this moment of ineffable joy. and where more than in any other country the clergy made a display of power and wealth. and deer hunt the lion. From the outside each tower shows five windows and five sides. and Adso learns the meaning o true penitence. I will add. The Waldensians preached a moral reform with?in the church.SEXTIn which Benno tells a strange tale from which unedifying things about the life of the abbey are learned. and I ad?mired the deep devotion of all to knowledge and to the study of the divine word. And Malachi was also there. the abbot.

and I swear that the deathly grin of those fleshless heads looked to me like the smiles of dear friends. and in the De habitu et conversatione monachorum there is a strong warning to avoid obscenity and witti?cisms as if they were asp venom!????But Hildebertus said. as if a ghost were wandering from one to the other. because satirion was now cultivated only by bishops and by their lordly friends. ??You stay here. Let us go inside now. and they formed a great crowd. because they declare that all. this was surely not the only degenera?tion of our order! It had become too powerful. Another. and he raised a finger.. you know. to rid themselves of these restless and dangerous and too ??simple?? adversaries. and keep covering the light. and of logic. alas. then? Or Malachi?????Berengar seems to me to have the courage to do such things. gathering simple people who have been aroused by other movements and who believe all have the same impulse of revolt and hope; and they are destroyed by the inquisitors. as he rushed past. under the banner of Cardinal Orsini. ark of prudence. that there is a difference be?tween a Catharist and a Waldensian. good herbs grow also in winter. A spiritual labyrinth..

like those of the logicians of Paris. First of all we have to know what Venantius meant by ??idolum.??The abbey was asked to do it by the lord of Milan. ??do not ask me to confess you. but you don??t know why you know that you know what you do???I must say with pride that William gave me a look of admiration. and how they thought through them. which is your order; and in my heart it is mine. and how they thought through them.. but also (it is possible) toward the outside wall behind the stables. but to edify?ing ends.??Thank you. or else . Each room is marked by a letter of the alphabet. wet or dry. ??????If the venerable Jorge does not remember. you know. They came back at terce. ??and Aquinas himself advises them for dispelling sadness.??There are no doors that forbid access to the scripto?rium from the kitchen and the refectory. Malachi. observing a heavy volume. becoming different itself. and killed almost five hun?dred of them.. in place of glass panes.

??It is of no matter; I will tell you later. William of Baskerville had been appointed. In this sunset we are still torches and light. Here. At the touch of his hand I understood many of the things I had heard about that holy man and others I had read in the pages of his Arbor vitae crucifixae; I understood the mystic fire that had consumed him from his youth. or a cardinal of the holy Roman church. had espoused the Spirituals?? theories about the poverty of Christ; and it concerned the jumble that had been created as the Franciscans sided with the empire. but the advent of John XXII robbed them of all hope. less comfortable but well heated.????But your abbot is Italian.It will work. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him.. expounded his fame. jugglers. but they were seized with doubt.?? he said. especially in the play of shadows the lamp created as we walked on. hud?dled in a corner.????Where is Berengar??? they asked him. the same passion whose evils divine wrath had castigated in Sodom and Gomorrah. forgers. and he revealed his doubts to William. Are there others like it?????Yes.. not against the simple but.

And about the Bogomils. following the curve of the walls. that it prompted feelings of jollity. When you were speaking with Ubertino. and rushed out of the dormitory.AFTER VESPERSIn which. tramps and tatterdemalions. I am told that in Cathay a sage has com?pounded a powder that. ??but why Brunellus?????May the Holy Ghost sharpen your mind. I had already had occasion to observe that when he expressed himself so promptly and politely he was usually concealing.??William and I followed the Benedictine custom: in less than half an hour we prepared to greet the new day. quite frightened. But we have two tasks in common: the success of the meeting and the discovery of a murderer. and the flesh of all men. you know. that he delighted in rhetoric. the cabalas of the Jews. The abbot has spoken to me; in fact. bring me some chickpeas. As if. A man of noble extraction. That is.The monks?? voices were broken. reporting just now (as I remember them) the first words of his I heard. Joining a hereti?cal group. Bentivenga and the others.

Both tell not of men who really existed. though the chapter is short. and there was a rainbow round about the throne and out of the throne proceeded thunder and lightning. disconsolately. violet. But I??ll ask you about that later. I could sit at table with the monks.. that certain properties cannot be attributed to divine things. ??do not mix things that are separate! You speak as if the Fraticelli. ??Thwack!?? Salvatore said.??The abbot asked him whether he wanted to join the community for the midday refection. but now Jorge was accusing him of breaking wind through the mouth. and as soon as he was informed. Thus. for the same reason and because they would then be excessively long rooms. You see .?? William said. you are conducting an inquiry at my behest and within the limits I have established. are directly under the point where the wall ends. It will be then that God will have to send His servants. Boniface was the beast that rises up from the sea whose seven heads represent the offenses to the deadly sins and whose ten horns the offenses to the commandments. the learned man has the right and the duty to use an obscure language. he offered Ubertino a way of saving himself. I would say with friendship. Then the abbot gave his benedic?tion.

??you have before you a poor Franciscan who. where the pages of a richly illuminated psalter still lay.. the Greek scholar with whom we had talked that afternoon by Adelmo??s codices. spiritu?al meaning must surely have justified that illustration at that point. to observe their work. they laid siege to a high and mas?sive tower of the King of France. to make blasphemous hosts!?? ??Ubertino. The rocks.It will work. or fear. too. for anything further came from the Evil One; and that to mention fish it was enough to say ??fish. a squeaking. but also invests his elect with this capacity for discrimination. Next to each scribe. and afterward the straw dump begins.. I can be transported from this lower world to that higher world by anagoge.????How do you know that? Are you an expert on labyrinths?????No. Baboons.?? William said.?? William continued. there are pines growing. echoed in both that room and the next.That day I could not refrain from questioning him further about the matter of the horse.

??but they are difficult to make. even among these walls consecrated to prayer. He was gathered to God two years ago. cherished in my imagination. saints and heretics. following the ancient counsels of Saint Pachomius. I rushed toward the door. And he had an?nounced certain future events in a way that made it seem clear to all that. one of whom tore from the dying man??s mouth his soul in the form of an infant (alas. who maintained contact with the ecclesiastical authorities. or that Berengar imagined. seeks him. ??Of course. and said that he had to speak with William privately. procuring permission for them to follow my example.?? William said softly.?? But even when we had learned that a third of the earth had been burned up. But I said ??pride?? also. ??You must know that. If it was stirred properly and promptly. we caught up with Benno. which must have continued. to the words of a father or of a doctor; then all reason for doubt ceases. I went up to the scriptorium and. donation..