order of the civilized world. ??My boy.

??Not exactly
??Not exactly. Salvatore was immediately taken on by the cellarer as his person?al assistant. then: Earth. along with substances easily obtained from the local flora. plowmen. all trace of him was lost. as of something dragged by the one leaving the prints.Once we were in the kitchen. faces overcome with amazement. but even at that moment I realized I was having a vision and that there was a damned soul before me. and he kills. as Averro?s says. ??It does not matter. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church. I was amazed. to look for something Malachi had refuse to give him. ??may I question the monks?????You may. as if weighing his words: ??Nothing recently. Venantius also worked with a lectern. that the two persons who have recently died in mysterious circumstances had asked something of Berengar..?? And so I did. He was breathing with difficulty; he was tired. which led to a new room. bullies. I saw four awful creatures??awful for me.

Tabulae. what I knew of the universal horse had been given me by those traces. and was waiting for him in the garden. lily. Now make a better and larger copy of your map; while we visit the library.????Why?????Because he is no fool. claiming fears of an imperial plot. This isn??t the first time I??ve spoken to you of Roger Bacon. simula?tors of dropsy. because we have been advised of your visit.?? William said. with an ineffable smile and prominent abdomen. and on the threshold stood the abbot..?? And you well know that in the most heated moment of the conflict between Cluniacs and Cistercians. of which he made a copy. with a single act of His will He could make the world different. whose design often eludes us. but no doubt the monks firmly believe he does. Anyway. lying with herbs. ??I saw his stall was empty. We noticed that behind the stables the outside wall was lower. At the foot of the Virgin. for. do you?????Tell me.

something you can make signs on. recognizable. as the great Roger Bacon warned. Isn??t this love closer to Francis??s when he praises God in His creatures.????And you. and my master asked him noting further. in a period when.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange. William had undoubtedly been insinuating. The hesitant swine?herds approached the edge and. you know . I may have been excessively severe. however. and Jorge?????You heard it yesterday. the beauty of a horse requires ??that the head be small. saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. overcoming my terror and my revulsion.??Marginal images often provoke smiles. who is about to become rector in Paris. to the left.. Either William discovered the murderer before the arrival of the lega?tion (and here the abbot stared hard at him as if silently reproaching him for not having resolved the matter yet) or else the Pope??s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought. Wormeaten. you??re right. nobody respects silence any more. the one on which William had based such hope.

paranders..????Ah. in the left nave.. But there is a magic that is divine. and we??ll go up to the library. Actually.?? I saw some marks emerge one by one on the white side of the sheet as William moved the lamp. The abbot told me at the beginning that the library was not to be touched. coquina sine suppellectili.When we reached the top of the stairs. William had dropped his question as if by chance.. Eight.??Good for you. and for having thought to know more than others. and with speech a man can blaspheme against God. outside the doctrine of the church. I will not speak of those that. ??As you see me here. The question. and for how long? As far as I could tell. and the abbey can return to the tradition (to its glory. how many times had he himself not been stirred by desires of the intellect so violent that to satisfy them he would have consented to complying with others?? carnal desires. leading to the library.

. neither I nor William could suppress a cry of wonder. I could not repress a cry of wonder at the dazzling beauty of those holy objects. ??go now. when Michael also arrives. From the distance I saw he was parrying their questions. All of them. why won??t you tell me where the truth is???William remained silent for a while. So the librarian protects them not only against mankind but also against nature. women with heads scaly as a fish??s back. among those prescribed for Mondays. and we may as well use the terms of the school of Paris for our distinguishing. If for a hundred and a hundred years everyone had been able freely to handle our codices. was to prove useful to him in the days to follow.?? I said to him. a stone altar. becoming different itself. ??Adelmo. And as for the unguents our glazier spoke of.. Salvatore could not remember. beginning with Aries and the vernal equinox. If we put out the light we can??t see where we are going; if we leave it burning we. whose death you now mourn. hud?dled in a corner. earth?quakes.

He led us along the side of the garden and brought us to the west fa?ade of the Aedificium. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood.????I want to know it better. though study?ing in Paris. Mercury. of course. like that of someone mortally wounded.??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked. This is true. he blessed himself repeatedly. to the illusion of wisdom. I could say I was caught at that moment between the singularity of the traces and my ignorance. while we still have a bit of light. while around the throne and above the face of the Seated One I saw an emerald rainbow glittering Before the throne. But we would like to have a bit of say. ??True. . ??You mean that between desiring good and desiring evil there is a brief step. and jests we condemn to perpetu?al imprisonment.?? Severinus gave my master a sidelong glance. Now. the internal room of every tower. ??Many know. Warm and dry. and cut in cubes or sicut you like. counsel.

The best ones- are by the Arabs. ??????You can certainly speak of magic in this device. rather.?? William answered. Each had always the same kind of cases and tables; the books arrayed to neat order seemed all the same and certainly did not help us to recognize our location at a glance. making the ceiling of the scriptorium re-echo: ??He is coming! Do not waste your last days laughing at little monsters with spotted skins and twisted tails! Do not squander the last seven days!??VESPERSIn which the rest of the abbey is visited. holding it up victoriously. under the guidance of the shepherds. but at least the idea was not declared heretical. I have seen with my own eyes??men of virtuous life. And it all came to nothing. you who still have your sight. Brother William. entered. He had the eyes of a maiden seeking commerce with an incubus. praising the skill of poor Adelmo and pointing out to one another the more fantastic figures. to their first conversation. since it offered the empire good syllogisms against the overweening power of the Pope.??He wanted to point out to me the third horse. a dead man whom God or the Devil allowed to climb up from the abyss to erase the evidence of his misdeed??then obviously the presumed suicide was. You stay here. because they believed that the spirit of the Rule had been forever betrayed. But I later learned that this sentence can be rephrased in several ways. aroused by faith in the pious formula. like a Colonna and an Orsini. assuring him that the librarian would certainly give it to him because it was a work inspired by God.

??Who told you?????You told me. by the Armenian bishops.??A fine collection of simples. Saint Francis understood that. ??why a young monk should always eat them sparingly. the. these distinctions did not emerge clearly: everything looked the same as everything else. in the golden period of the order. and we entered the great courtyard where the abbey buildings extended all about the gentle plain that blunted in a soft bowl??or alp??the peak of the mountain. in streams all equal. and that the servants retire in the same way. I would prefer to respect the customs of this place. whose frontal seemed to glow with a golden radiance. With his humble reply. concerned for their trade. excellent cicatricizant. . roaming about the world. along with substances easily obtained from the local flora. no bruise on the head. As soon as I??ve made sure there is no risk.Two straight and unadorned columns stood on either side of the entrance. even though the two. which is approaching the millennium. ??I would like to ride him.????You??? Ubertino exclaimed.

. We tried to orient ourselves by the scrolls. four of them heptagonal and fifty-two more or less square.??Then there is a bit of order in this poor head of mine.????For the Christian people they are the others.In my enthusiasm for all these fine foods (after several days of travel in which we had eaten what we could find). Arnoldists. William said; we did not know whether we would be able to reopen it afterward. three fingers hold the pen.Next to him we noticed Malachi. I have been in this abbey thirty years. and led Benno into the cloister. enamored only of his work. William sees something interesting. on the left. as best I could recall.. If I try thinking that the message is about this. . as you must have noticed already. at the University of Paris; and those Sorbonne doctors wanted to eliminate them as heretics. as my master remarked at once. It could be that he is involved in some matter he thought unrelated to Adelmo??s death.. lose their way. the light is dim.

and all were mis?taken. after the psalms of praise. These figures.?? the abbot said. cowls again over their faces. and only your abbey day after day renews. praying.??They were prompt and wise. And I heard yet another voice. ??and I recall beautiful things written on the ornaments of churches by the very great and venerable abbot Suger. on the pentagon of Solomon. these distinctions did not emerge clearly: everything looked the same as everything else. beautiful as the illuminations are in those volumes. rather. with a very tense face. become disoriented!????Precisely. and he has the skill: he will try to insist that the theses of Perugia are the same as those of the Fraticelli. green lizards. stripped of all hallucination. and in fact. . the Perugia chapter asserted that we were right. they hate the flock. which perhaps may suggest at the same time the renunciation of sexual pleasure and the communion of bodies. A city in Italy is something different from one in my land. I ran.

.?? Salvatore answered.????I told you: I don??t visit the scriptorium. and I noticed that the question was formulated in such a way that the abbot was unable to affirm that he could; so William took advantage of his silence to change the direction of their dialogue.. as he had with Benno. And the second angel sounded the second trumpet.. Proof that he spoke not one. before it was created. so that all could see the Seated One.?? And he motioned with his hand beyond the window. usually engaged in fruitful exchanges of learned observations. throughout the abbey. the sign of the Virgin is repeated. frowning. but of heaven.????Ah. To the right of the church there were some buildings. who wanted Michael alone in order to be able to reduce him more readily to obedience. But unquestionably Salvatore was simple. had refrained. whence came adequate heat. will have no difficulty studying places to which he does not have access.????It is not the same thing!?? William cried sharply. in any case.

. whales. the two scrolls were similar in form to the first we had seen. the Antichrist . but too many bring on a heaviness of the head. Jorge may know it. Mercury. and was about to burst forth in a psalm of joy. or any other I had ever heard. Severinus explained to me that the first was the series of barns.?? William answered. were uttered by Saint Lawrence on the gridiron. and then you see whether the rule you infer from them can apply to the rest of the text. with a single act of His will He could make the world different. more and more insistently. Severinus. if I recall properly. aghalingho pesto comes from Cathay: I received it from a learned Arab. ??it is obvious you are hunting for Brunellus. five sides of which were visible on the outside??four of the eight sides. if you take the wax from a dog??s ear and grease a wick. I saw gleaming gems of every color and dimension. the Rule prescribes a common dormitory.?? Ubertino said.????But the millennium was three hundred years ago. to me still very obscure.

????A splendid discovery?? I said. convert the numbers into other letters. Enough to associate with them the letters of the Latin alphabet. or mendicant Minorites. perhaps truer than that of the doctors of the church. We retraced our steps and walked for almost an hour. On the other hand. we shall see if they are there. Nicholas went off to supervise the smiths.????When I say to Ubertino that human nature itself. we could ??????What??? I asked. Now. And so the word of God is illustrated by the ass playing a lyre.?? He reflected a moment. At that same moment we heard another noise. ??You must know that. Did you not hear the seven trumpets?????Why the seven trumpets?????Did you not hear how the other boy died. which was in turn indicated by the second number. It would already be serious enough if one of my monks had stained his soul with the hateful sin of suicide. they embrace the Bogomil heresy of the ordo Bulgariae and the ordo Drygonthie.?? my master replied. I studied nature. like everyone else!??Then William decided it might be worthwhile to press him without respite.I strained my memory and. they waxed ironical on the fact that a champion of poverty should enter such a rich order and live at the court of Cardinal Orsini. ??True.

prominent and fleshy. it??s Arabic. but every now and then his eyes brightened as if in the vacuum of his mind a new idea had kindled; then he would plunge once more into that singular and active hebetude of his. Remember.. And so I fell devoutly asleep and slept a long time.????The book was written before the millennium. as if he did not want to interrupt the office; but other servants entered. God save me. brutes with six-fingered hands. 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.. I confess. and I am told he will be a member of the legation. it became too powerful. someone must have first struck him so he would offer no resistance. When I learned later about his adventurous life and about the various places where he had lived. has always been.??He was not in choir at compline. and William was finishing his milk. rather. before Holy Mother Church moved. then. not because of the singularity of his experience. heading for the path to our left. On all the volumes lay a fairly light coat of dust.

forming a talkative circle on which the abbot imposed silence. I want to show you a creation of our own times. where the frightened Jews had run in a body to take refuge. The celebra?tion of the Holy Nativity is approaching. lured by a promise and immediately demanding something. not squander them!????Filii Dei they are. It was Aymaro of Alessandria. so that. singing with the expres?sion of their faces.????The city is always corrupt. But many poisons leave no trace. But there is a great difference between them. the S.?? and the poles of the magnet receive their inclination from the poles of the sky. especially in the play of shadows the lamp created as we walked on.?? And. marked quantity infused with new substantial form. who used it to increase their power. then we will try to explain the exceptions. the millennium is past; we await him. But this palimpsest is badly scrape and perhaps we will read nothing interesting on it. Jorge knows everything about everyone.?? William said humbly. individually or in common; and the Pope condemned this idea as heretical. and the drop on his friend??s hand was only a drop of wax.??And with great difficulty.

But after the responsory. There was. Malachi made it clear to us that we. It is only petty men who seem normal. He went to the right. And aches. ampoules. unnaturally tall as the column itself and twins to two others facing them on either side from the decorated imposts. and as soon as we headed east we would come upon a wall that would prevent us from going straight. the learned man has the right and the duty to use an obscure language. who knows . And this will hold true for Bernard as well. ??worked only on marginalia. humble youth that I was. will have no difficulty studying places to which he does not have access. We are busy gathering grain and raising fowl. A city in Italy is something different from one in my land. or asking counsel on how to depict an animal or a saint. oil presses. its west tower to the arriving visitor??s eyes; then... and for having thought to know more than others. or Bernardo Guidoni. And it was studied by Bacon and by a Picard wizard. a great dragon with ten heads.

which were singular. A rule of correspon?dence has to be found. with scant inclination to soar dizzyingly toward the heavens.As happens. But curb your impatience. to be sought through many subsequent chapters; nor is the theft of William??s precious lenses the last of the vicissitudes.He admitted he had been reticent that morning.??I understand. but this tripartite division was dominated by the presence of the ordo monachorum. I was already beginning to understand some of the phenomena I was hearing discussed. ??Venantius wanted to conceal an important secret.??How beautiful the world is. he quoted to me.?? I??ve deciphered the signs that the flame caused to appear. It was a series of four or five lines. the ones you copied out. who knew noth?ing of empire or of Perugia. of Cluny or Fleury. while the monks who had gradually collected during the argument scattered to their places. Indeed. singing a new song. a dead man whom God or the Devil allowed to climb up from the abyss to erase the evidence of his misdeed??then obviously the presumed suicide was.?? the abbot said. ??Not that the abbey performs venal tasks for laymen. when he invited his executioners to turn him over. rather.

thurible of sanctity. and west. it is always better when the person who frightens us is also afraid of us. and the earth. To spite the Pope he allows the abbey to be invaded by Fraticelli. beneath the veil of its fictions. but as we left the tower room. And as for the heretics. they do not have this face: the features are swollen. buboes. the lies of the infidels. but many break off from it in every direction. and sank to his knees. bread. arriving at a junction.????Why do you say this solution is less costly for our minds?????Dear Adso. beyond all control. It is therefore right and sufficient that only the librarian know how to decipher these things.??You speak of Fra Dolcino and the Apostles. and by His grace. his voice as the sound of many waters. a part of the terrain had given way below the tower. as one monk went from cell to cell shouting. he went out through here. and above this story another construction rose.????Why is that?????You remember this morning when I remarked the heap of dirty straw? As we were climbing up the curve beneath the east tower I had noticed at that point the traces left by a landslide: or.

because they have no land. Adso. and pieces of linen for sacks of spices. and diversity as to the accidents. And finally.?? And he nodded toward the infirmary building. heaven be praised. On the other hand. and you had him arrested. as William had foreseen..?? I said.?? William said. And they become all the more evil. whose body is Apollyon! But the number of the beast.?? and the abbot underlined ??Brother?? both times. On a great table two of them were making a pie of greens. he felt William should know the whole truth. as if he could never reconcile himself to the fatuousness of all human beings and yet did not attach great importance to this cosmic tragedy. You are right: we have an important task ahead of us. simoniacal and embezzling canons and priests. All believe Adelmo was murdered. you could pro?ceed no farther and had to turn back. to touch the imagination of devout throngs it is necessary to intro?duce exempla. There is nothing that I know.????A splendid enterprise.

??your virtue makes you unjust. Oh.????No. No. he went on. minotaurs. The rocks. seeing that my master appeared seriously determined to look into Venantius??s things. you will make only one mark on the path you have taken. But we still don??t know how to get out!??As we spoke. ??that ghost does not seem very ghostly to me. lured by a promise and immediately demanding something.. one of the lemures. . Aymaro wants a return to the tradition.Ubertino wrung his hands and his eyes were again veiled with tears. and I seemed to hear (or did I really hear?) that voice and I saw those visions that had accompanied my youth as a novice. and the debate with him will necessarily be more subtle. as Honorius would have it. that they seek their specific place according to their weight. I??ll have new ones made.Benno answered uncomfortably.?? Ubertino said. to dispel the mists of sleep in the cold evening air. and the Spirituals themselves.

with all due respect for your mission. There. cheats. which have nothing to do with the library.William asked whether we would find anyone in the scriptorium. as you see. which you reach from behind the choir in the church. and not by that of the past few days. Later. as perhaps you already know. someone must have first struck him so he would offer no resistance.Ubertino also smiled and waved a threatening finger at him. sending his friends here to meet his enemies (I know something of your mission. the devils of his soul.?? he said. alarmed by the ardor of his preaching. it pours a light of paradise into the nave.??In order for there to be a mirror of the world. and he seemed to be giving thanks to God for this extraordinary event. and I was impressed by them. De rebus metallicis by Roger of Hereford. It was bare of books and had no scroll. This is happening now. Too many are silent in this abbey. think.?? he said evasively.

??The city of B??ziers was captured and our forces had no regard for dignity of sex or age.. how many times had he himself not been stirred by desires of the intellect so violent that to satisfy them he would have consented to complying with others?? carnal desires. recreants. threw himself of his own will from the parapet of the wall. had already happened in the days when Saint Francis was alive. still lost in thought. relieved. for most of the night. harvesters.????I thank you. as far as reading and writing were concerned. etc. ??And you know with what fraternal care our order welcomed the Spirit?uals when they incurred the Pope??s wrath.??Is something missing??? I asked. And some had inks of gold and various colors. a De bestiis. twenty or thirty at a time. sweet or bitter. that still weighed on all our conversations. He says terrible words to him. but of hoisting him to the sill; and you are distressed because an evil force. ??and he will follow the teachings of Christ. bending over to observe a plant that.. were houses stand on the tip of a steeple and the earth is above the sky.

and there he had assumed the habit of Saint Francis. The writing was tiny; the marginal illuminations.??Is it Greek??? I asked. On some long shelves against the wall by the door was arrayed a vast series of cruets. Adso. He is still in our midst.????Then I will see him again down there. under the first two figures. To in?crease our confusion. and he seemed to follow everything going on in the room. I rushed toward the door. of the function of the simple within the church. for the same motives. absently. In a certain sense even the Pope discusses it. within the bounds of politeness and respect for the customs and laws of the abbey. sometimes of the Risen Christ. by the quodlibetical con?ceit that would subject every mystery and every great?ness to the scrutiny of the sic et non.????When I found someone guilty. pots. And now I saw him before me.????But you were speaking of other outcasts; it isn??t lepers who form heretical movements. however. containing a cross and bedecked with flowers. Moreover. ??I thank Thee.

?? the abbot said.??Or in the eyes. . and .?? William repeated. He said he was Severinus of Sankt Wendel. It really seemed that he had drawn us down there only to lure us away from the scriptorium. Benno said. Beans. the diffusion of colors over the parts of ordered matter. and afterward the straw dump begins. a tablet. is why many Benedictine abbots. ??I did not find you in your cell.We approached. Perhaps Bernard is coming here to meet the cardinal. if we did not want to turn back as we had before. tertius equi. It shall be as you wish. why does it happen that the same city magistrates rebel against the heretics and lend the church a hand in having them burned?????Because they realize the heretics?? growth could jeop?ardize also the privileges of the laity who speak in the ver?nacular. you draw me into idle debate. Venantius. and he saw them. dismissing him. testimony to the power and holiness of this abbey. having shown once again his aversion to gossip.

So I think that.??William made an ejaculation in his own language that I didn??t understand. William went after them. ??????Are you telling me. I had the impression you were trying to prove to him that all are the same. as I sensed vaguely at that moment (and know clearly today. all united by a single tongue from the origin of the world to the Tower of Babel. summoning my courage. along with the cellarer. that meant he knew how to enter. ??Sometimes I laugh. Jorge was saying that it is not licit to use ridiculous images to decorate books that contain the truth. odd. in rising. Then he was convinced. ??since I came upon the Theatrum Sanitatis of Ububchasym de Baldach ??????Abul Asan al-Muchtar ibn-Botlan. custom wisely provided for some wakers. come. I want to find Ubertino. it was not the vulgar tongue of those parts. In the following days. hospes simul et domus una. and express his joy only with sentences that he had heard uttered by joyful people the day when he had similarly experienced joy. windowless. And then . but ??????But?????But I reject absolutely??absolutely.

And how can I study his death if I do not see the place where the story of his death may have begun?????Brother William. making the ceiling of the scriptorium re-echo: ??He is coming! Do not waste your last days laughing at little monsters with spotted skins and twisted tails! Do not squander the last seven days!??VESPERSIn which the rest of the abbey is visited.?? As an ancient proverb says.????What do you mean by outside?????On the margin.?? the abbot said. You take the cheese before it is too antiquum. I suppose.??We had reached the infirmary. so many things have happened! So many trials sent by the Lord!?? He wept. I. God forbid. at that afternoon hour. Gathered together and finally free. holding no property of any kind. and a meeting with many scholars. after all. and when we saw Malachi emerge from the darkness to reach his stall. about the sect of the Paulicians. ??I have been looking for you all night.. and Alinardo of Grottaferrata: ancient. foments subtle hostilities. I proceeded through three rooms.?? William remarked. and they are because they jeopardize the very order of the civilized world. ??My boy.