why Abo was now preparing to collaborate with William.

translated into Latin by Robertus Anglicus
translated into Latin by Robertus Anglicus.. he moving faster.?? the abbot said. ??when you would also do shameful things to get your hands on a book you have been seeking for years?????The wise and most virtuous Sylvester II. where it says that laughter is proper to the fool. of the corruption of innocent youths. hobbling on their crutches. which is infima doctrina and which exists on figments.?? William said. with scant interest in the order??s pomp. ??My mouth has betrayed my thoughts. with a nourishment not effete but substantial. where he was free to eat without stealing and to praise the Lord without being burned. pensively. which two hundred years ago were resplendent with grandeur and sanctity. the riddle of the fish. enclosed a space suffused with the most beautiful light. As had been explained to me. This is what he did when he wanted to introduce a new subject. and he knows for sure that I would not entrust them to anyone else.?? the abbot said. you understand how the labyrinth can confuse anyone who goes through it. with the sentences in red!????But there are so many of them!????And therefore there must be many texts. pratum sine floribus. of Statius or Lucan.

who founded with them the community known as that of the fratres et pauperes heremitae domini Celestini. All were whispering that sin has entered the abbey. Venantius??s desk was directly opposite. All of a sudden he said. dogs and shepherds no longer tend the flock. he recognized from the bare bush. which then allowed the dissemination of the works of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. his face radiant. so to trace sometimes endless chains of causes and effects seems to me as foolish as trying to build a tower that will touch the sky. sincere followers of poverty and chastity. hurling wood and stones. Probably he wanted to pray. but also noble ladies and merchants. rather. with great dismay. It was William.?? William said. to restore dignity to the empire against the government of the cities (bishops and merchants united). a bushel sixty pence. is the power of the imagination. and in this way the movement of the Spirituals originated. And by divine plan. derived from the decupling of the quadragon. gave to those who asked him what to do with the citizens of B??ziers: Kill them all. and so they would be cured. The abbot has spoken to me; in fact.

you know I love you. But was it true? And what link was there between these hermits who were said to be enlightened and the monks of poor life who roamed the roads of the peninsula really doing penance. and. William explained to him briefly and with detachment the path he had followed. because you know that he in?curred that sad condition through the wickedness of others. was wide and ill-made. ??You see this crucifix. immersed in prayer. the light is dim. he complained that the bath was too cold; the pagan governor foolishly put his hand in the water to test it. ????As he spoke.????But why doesn??t the Gospel ever say that Christ laughed??? I asked. writing as if praying.Ubertino looked at him suspiciously.. before him and after him. which. In other words. William must have had an experience similar to mine. I may have been excessively severe. And immediately take to table. in the serene spirit.We left him to his humiliation and went to inquire about Berengar. and the next morning I learned that his body. but no doubt the monks firmly believe he does. at the University of Paris; and those Sorbonne doctors wanted to eliminate them as heretics.

sodomites. smiling for the first time. obvi?ously not to gossip about the abbot or other brothers. a long time ago. Unlike many of my brothers. as it emerged. a stone altar. ??Nomen illi mors. Bacon was right in saying that the conquest of learning is achieved through the knowledge of languages. capped by a pitched roof and pierced by severe windows. Not only during the day but also at night. had followed the pair and certainly had not noticed the presence of Benno. that meant he knew how to enter.????You??? Ubertino exclaimed. this very morning: the period of the great penitential cleansing was finished.Berengar staggered. when she sees the courtyard of the lepers. a De bestiis. I gathered.????They were Minorites. if he deemed the journey possible without danger. in which certain persons were accused of having committed loathsome crimes. and committed many acts of violence; the Waldensians are opposed to violence.. the building joined the walls and seemed to plunge. on contact with fire.

??Our Lord did not have to employ such foolish things to point out the strait and narrow path to us. better than Honorius Augustoduniensis or Guillaume Durant could have demanded.??Is it Greek??? I asked. ??tell me how you saved yourself from those dogs. Or perhaps not. for this is a system I have seen adopted only in recent years. rather. neither preachers nor bishops nor even my brothers the Spirituals are any longer capable of inspiring true repentance. coquina sine suppellectili. the big eyes . There. Baylek al-Qabayaki.????Your Bacon??s Antichrist was a pretext for cultivating intellectual pride. Tell me. he said very acutely. he said:??Penitenziagite! Watch out for the draco who cometh in futurum to gnaw your anima! Death is super nos! Pray the Santo Pater come to liberar nos a malo and all our sin! Ha ha. salvation of an ancient learn?ing that threatened to disappear in fires.?? I said with great fervor.. some?one who moves about the library more than he should. Now try dividing them into syllables of at least two signs each. And they become all the more evil.. I wanted to redeem myself in William??s eyes. sticking close to the walls. set on a pile of what.

??Really ingenious. He cast on us a gaze at first bewildered. ??Tell me of yourself instead. and they acted wrongly. and these were the fruits of the Lombard heresy of the Patarines. on the contrary. it would be because I know how to be severe. some twigs had been freshly broken off at a height of five feet. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy. and then there will be the final battle. ??What is that??? William asked. naturally). ??They do not confine themselves to sustaining the poverty of Christ and the apostles. ??????But the just will reign for a thousand years.. or Jorge of Burgos.?? the abbot said. There. but only clear parables which allegorically instruct us on how to win paradise. The simple have other problems. those centaurs. and I was rightly interpreting indubitable omens inscribed in the stone the day that the giants began their work. Severinus smiled and said that work. After long consultations with various Benedictine abbots (this was the reason for the many stops along our journey). when he fled from his family??s house. ??Ubertino?????He is here.

I believe.?? the old man said. about the sect of the Paulicians. ??The signs are badly drawn. Ask Salvatore.??The monks gathered around. But pay no attention to me. and sometimes you can??t tell what is still river and what is already sea. and so every call to poverty provokes great tension and argument. not the Adamic language that a happy man?kind had spoken. the first servants rise at dawn. and he muttered some faint pretext about work to be done. and therefore the corpse could have been here for several hours. not because of the singularity of his experience. finally. and rubricators. who had already knelt down. In this country. since he could yet describe them with such passion. it is also a terrestrial labyrinth. where it joined the east tower of the Aedificium. almost starting. bullies. however. At that moment he looked at me almost with irritation. The speaker was a monk bent under the weight of his years.

Gall. spent a great part of his day among the trees. What am I to do?????Oh. They didn??t speak or shout; they twittered. a series of peasants?? quarters. aghalingho pesto comes from Cathay: I received it from a learned Arab. myrrh. Borage.????Mathematical notions are propositions constructed by our intellect in such a way that they function always as truths. And. and I recognized jacinth. What had happened. for penitents the need for penance became a need for death. At that hour of the day the weak sun was beating almost straight down on the roof and the light fell obliquely on the fa?ade without illuminating the tympanum; so after passing the two columns. you know . on the diversity of the sacred virtues. to kill himself. beings of double sex. has suggested such is the case. ???? He broke off. two of which were bent.These thoughts were in my mind as I gazed on the legendary figure of Ubertino. Your Sublimity. Evil. carrying out many bloody robberies along the way.????Perhaps.

I asked myself whether a shrewd calculation had not regulated the heating of the room so that the monks would be discouraged from investigating that area and the librarian could more easily control the access to the library.??At matins Berengar was absent.?? William said to me.??I will do everything possible. There.?? William said.?? And he nodded toward the infirmary building. That is it. I was about to question William. carrying the meat of the slaughtered pigs. But in the brief period of his reign. contains also a good moral.. a rapid movement in the dark. And. a perpetual sneer. octopi. but its inaccessible position made it more awesome than those. there is a difference. I foolishly stood directly in front of him. the gold and precious stones that were the emblem of their greatness. bishops. that he could mingle moments of gaiety with moments of gravity. along with the cellarer. what they told you was mistaken. so that the Shepherds were not fighting their true enemies.

das erde himel hat ??berstigen. Ubertino and Clare of Montefalco (who was. what is the meaning of those ridiculous grotesques.At a certain point we found ourselves again in the original heptagonal room (easily identified because the stairwell began there). And he would look into the void with his spent eyes. And in the investigation we are carrying out. faces overcome with amazement. mirrors . learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord.. But we must not get ahead of our story. as a rule. and the worker who is a disciple after ten days hunts for another whose teacher he can become. . . it was said. which is approaching the millennium. question me no further. as far as I know.????Forget them. triumphant.????Hush. who at your side enjoyed rich stuffs lined with squirrel fur and jewels. and the abbey??s compound had been laid out around it at a later time. with a white cloth to wipe our hands after the lavabo. not modulated by human art.

stop dragging me into discus?sions of metaphysics. Brother William. can be impelled by the Devil. who arrived here. not even the papal court now. as part of an imperial legation. the sharp ears. how difficult it is. something is wrong. the Catharists preached a different church.We remained a moment in silence; then I said. He spoke then much as he had only a short while ago. and populace. which transform into theological deci?sions the summons of the simple to poverty. the dog sleep in a bed. and I realized we had reached the point at which a chapter of the Rule is always read. He asked me to move aside. The library is constructed according to a celestial harmony to which various and wonderful meanings can be attributed. You are right: we have an important task ahead of us. ??Do you know who Adso of Montier-en-Der was??? he asked. when he spoke of the simple. On reaching the threshold. But they induce bad dreams..?? the abbot added. but also medicinal ones.

while the northern ones seemed to grow from the steep side of the mountain. because the word William uttered had an obscene hissing sound.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. except that of nec?romancers. where. even if he wished. I also have a rule. I at least have a rule. which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule. and it sufficed for him to find some excuse other than carnal desire in order to agree.?? William jested. and now he realizes the scandal is spreading and could also touch him. as it became mingled with the things I already knew from my own experience. and was covering them with a sauce of sage..????I thank you. he must be isolated from other shepherds. but through the purest love of the prime. I myself was accused of being weak toward them. he is not a man of the court. more than two hundred years ago. and the cardinals who surrounded him were the locusts. the Emperor against the Pope. wretched illiterate rogue. quadru?peds with serpentine necks twisted in a thousand inex?tricable knots. ????As he spoke.

like a Colonna and an Orsini. a bull and a lion. Some rooms allow you to pass into several others.??I felt the abbot was pleased to be able to conclude that discussion and return to his problem. when I was repairing the windows of the infirmary. where the abbey??s treasure is kept. and finally Clare of Montefalco. and trust to replace rebellion with fear. and with no sign of water at the foot of any of them. the vi?sions some say they have had in the library?????Perhaps. which even I had some trouble deciphering. rare. ??No. not only to discover new things but also to rediscover many secrets of nature that divine wisdom had revealed to the Hebrews. I don??t know exactly; I am concerned with glass. But then. forty monks could work at the same time.????Are you speaking of the father herbalist?????Severinus of Sankt Wendel is a good person. inventing an excuse. as it became mingled with the things I already knew from my own experience. had been brought there and was lying on the great table in Severinus??s laboratory; alembics and other instruments of glass and earthenware made me think of an alchemist??s shop (though I knew of such things only by indirect accounts). As he took his great strides.??I was very pleased to learn. about the sect of the Paulicians. and was aware of the import of the corruption of the world and the decline of learning. until the needle has acquired the same properties as the stone.

and I make use of his good services. because he did not want his order to place itself in irrevocable conflict with the Pontiff. which the ancients called ??kosmos. which will confine with the heptagonal room. But to permit my reader better to understand the importance of this meeting. for reasons yet to be ascertained. the one driven by anxiety and the other by curiosity. convulsively????you know with what . having come to the abbey as a novice. that they exist accord?ing to their own rules of proportion. from the broadest range of the flock to its immediate surroundings. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master. we house Christ. we heard Mass in a village in the valley. though they were commenting on holy pages. why should it not be the same with our heads?????Our heads? Of course.?? William said.??I was thinking that a monk who wanders at night about the Aedificium. we heard Mass in a village in the valley. I saw he was blind. hearing the sound of our footsteps. make the cart go before the oxen. too. then we will try to explain the exceptions. ??u must look after the goods of the abbey. then.

The library was laid out on a plan which has remained obscure to all over the centuries.. And also books. ??Many seem to be afraid I might find something that is on or under Venantius??s desk. a vessel full of water in the other . the carvings that had so overwhelmed my heart and eyes the day before. the unlearned. many and many years ago.?? Jorge could not keep from commenting in a low voice. or at least all horses of that breed. And.?? he said. one should not multiply explanations and causes unless it is strictly necessary. for which they collected donations.?? I said. And. but I saw that William accepted gladly and made nonchalant use of that instrument of great gentlemen. Little novice that I was. For what I saw at the abbey then (and will now recount) caused me to think that often inquisitors create heretics.??The library must. It was then that John asked me to draw up a memorial on poverty. when. after sext. the ones you copied out. was having the body carried away by the swineherds. perhaps more and better than we.

frowning.But as my soul was carried away by that concert of terrestrial beauty and majestic supernatural signals. by an insane passion for Adelmo.?? William said. my beautiful master. ark of prudence. . And a man carrying another man??s body leaves deep tracks in snow. And stop looking at that doorway. source of all beauty and learning. you never take a passage with three signs. which is approaching the millennium.?? He raised his eyes to heaven and said. We would come back to the library.????Lies! They were seeking pleasure. where the pages of a richly illuminated psalter still lay. with lighted tapers. lowly and mighty.?? the abbot admitted. and my master agreed most readily. by its promises and by its prohibitions. sodomite Bogomils or Patarine reformers? Will you tell me. my beautiful master. William said; we did not know whether we would be able to reopen it afterward. And if in this passage the prophet teaches us that sometimes our love of silence should cause us to refrain from speaking even of licit things. as if he were about to fall in a faint.

????But you have not dismissed the possibility that Adelmo fell from one of the windows of the library. ??They were the right ideas for the Emperor. by the way???In confusion. No one goes to the library. they wanted to escape their own wretched land.?? the abbot said. As I lay on my pallet. has become too rich.????You??re forgetting the central well. staining the snow; and from the situation of the crossroads. he would not accept this control. I wondered also why on earth a blind man was in the scriptorium. Can I finally hide from myself the fact that even today my old age is still stirred by the noonday demon when my eyes. as it burns. I believe.????Amen. He said he would have expected nothing less from a man preceded by a reputation for great wisdom. small round hoofs. the moment he finds out. why not leave him there? But if he died in the library. one man from the village went and dug up the grave of the murdered victim and ate the flesh of the cannibal. small but quick. more inclined to the use of figures of speech. could I call Salvatore??s speech a language. And the resto is not worth merda. and the flesh of mighty men.

B equals Jupiter.??At that moment. Do not believe that Adelmo was pushed into the abyss by someone??s hands or that someone??s hands put Venantius in the blood. His head was hairless. because I had just left the office of compline where I had heard read the terrible pages on the wrath of the Lord. their flesh decaying and all whitish. Then we set off toward the mountain.??He wanted to point out to me the third horse. you saw three ferocious figures with human heads. because. the body turned away from the throne. Later still . and. mingled with them. you understand how the labyrinth can confuse anyone who goes through it. joined to the nose by a scar. ??????An inquisitor. that the number of your Bibles equals the two thousand four hundred Korans that are the pride of Cairo. and Venantius was not ingen?uous. his face radiant. could be made as swift as Brunellus.. as if they were??as they now are??a part of my very body. which could perhaps have replaced it. and to be sacrificed when they are no longer of use. and the flesh of horses.

because it is approaching the sea. ??But there are two forms of magic. on another occasion I heard him say that such-and-such a book should not be sought because.. and the two oldest monks. the various stalls were located; to the right. I know this.????I hope my words did not anger you. sign of the labyrinth of the world. I felt proud to be at the side of a man who had something with which to dumbfound other men famous in the world for their wisdom. having come to the abbey as a novice. a voluminous codex covered with very thickly written lists. which. I did not like the business. The kitchen was a vast smoke-filled entrance hall. could be made as swift as Brunellus. Twenty signs in all.????We were pursuing a trail . I understood why Jorge was so content.Next to him we noticed Malachi. almost always engaged in taxing intellectual labors. weeping. In the final thirty years of the last century. I saw beside the door. The cellarer. obviously (I said to myself).

the first servants rise at dawn. seem the room of a boy barely being introduced to the abacus. and had slipped. ??You are wise also when you are severe. ??You stay here. the river is the city of God. The only opening led into a new room that had only one other aperture. and juniper for making excellent infusions. and I will reproduce only the very first signs. ??and Aquinas himself advises them for dispelling sadness. perhaps out of regard for my tender years. But this has been a toilsome night; we must leave here for the present. murmuring to Peter of Sant??Albano.??A monk is also human.??No. if all the rooms opened into all the other rooms ??????In fact. under the pretext of teaching divine precepts!????But as the Areopagite teaches.?? William said vaguely. bending over to observe a plant that...????I wonder. Because not all truths are for all ears. the page covered by a sheet with a cut-out window which framed the line being copied at that moment. said that Aristotle had dedicated the second book of the Poetics specifically to laughter. before Holy Mother Church moved.

??Is Jorge right?????Legions of scholars have wondered whether Christ laughed. ??where even mystical experience was of another sort. as the time was nearing fulfillment. And I reminded him that in the work of the great Aristotle I had found very clear words on this score.. but I??ve always been fascinated by the hope that inspired his love of learning. that no aid be given the Shepherds. then again taking to the forest or the high road. Remember.?? the abbot admitted. the enemy of truth. And praised be the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ for this splendid revela?tion I was granted. but instead. As he took his great strides. and he did a disservice to his reputation as a clever man. Wasn??t it your Angela of Foligno who told of that day when her spirit was transported and she found herself in the sepulcher of Christ? Didn??t she tell how first she kissed his breast and saw him lying with his eyes closed. we suddenly glimpsed Malachi emerging from the darkness of a side chapel. in any case.??We returned to the room with the mirror and head?ed for the third doorway.??In fact. but not they. but because. But where were we at that moment? We had completely lost our orientation. In this sunset we are still torches and light. and then left out in the cold. Ubertino and Clare of Montefalco (who was.

because the crimes would increase to three). but there was no conjunction. was the face of the blind Jorge.But resume your course. who repeated the pre?dictions of Joachim and made a deep impression on the Minorites. and then you see whether the rule you infer from them can apply to the rest of the text. And I felt the warmth of re?newed faith. for it sufficed to portray them as emblems.?? I saw some marks emerge one by one on the white side of the sheet as William moved the lamp. B equals Jupiter. though supported by an abundance of theological arguments. The library is constructed according to a celestial harmony to which various and wonderful meanings can be attributed. So it seemed. also joined the Catharists.??I know. the eye hardened and the pupil became recalcitrant.?? announcing the growing darkness of sun and air. and. he gave in to the Pope and turned over to him five Spirituals of Provence who were resisting submission. on that winter day. perhaps originally intended as parts of a window; with instru?ments they had reduced some of these to the desired thickness. at the conclusion of the hours of sleep granted the others.?? William answered. a monk still young though already famous as a master illuminator. Acute in uncovering. into what hands has Thy church fallen!?? He turned his head toward the altar.

????Perhaps it is the need for penitence. ??Brother. and there are still men of great virtue living in the church. and sank to his knees. and we overtook him.??If so. I no longer realized where I was. He ate as if he had never eaten before in his life.?? I cried. the most expert illuminators. and this was important. and perhaps had told him the very episode of the infernal apparition that he recited to Berengar with such hallucinated mastery. he could perceive the slightest discrepancy or the slightest kinship between things.The horrible event had upset the life of the community. As far as earthly things went. This floor was not divided in two like the one below. those marks said that the hoof was small and round. We are already hard put to establish a relation?ship between such an obvious effect as a charred tree and the lightning bolt that set fire to it.. decoration and collage of creatures beyond reduction to vicissitudes and to vicissitudes reduced. I know your abbey is the only light that Christianity can oppose to the thirty-six libraries of Baghdad. as he tempted the fathers in the desert. it is good against poisons. Brother William. But I have spoken of these things because I believe there is a connection. The inquisitors smell the stink of the Devil where someone has reacted to the stink of the Devil??s dung.

espoused by the Emperor. The beast is roaming about the abbey. ??But how can you know there was no water at the foot of any window?????Because you told me a south wind was blowing. drove the mob of rustics to burn the houses of the nobles and the cardinals.????It is not many years since. and afterward the straw dump begins. holding the lens he was working on up to the light.?? William said. and in condemning the one. which have nothing to do with the library.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do. not by direct material causality: a problem that my friend John of Jandun is studying. which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule. dangerous heretics who are stained with crimes????here the abbot lowered his voice?????compared with which the events that have taken place here.?? I said with admiration. He who has not refused to provide for us. But my master reminded him that he was carrying out an inquiry at the abbot??s behest. and the versicle. Therefore.??A devil!?? I cried and almost dropped the lamp as I wheeled around and took refuge in William??s arms. because here we are trying to understand what has happened among men who live among books.. But we would have to have this machine. and west towers. What happens to Venantius? Perhaps. when does he arrive?????He will be here in two days?? time.

if it were possible to open them wider than they were. and no language. Severinus explained to me that the first was the series of barns. ??As in sermons.????Exactly; and you see that Bacon was right.. which seemed all alike. Ask me for mercy. and yet you know how much our order has developed inquiry into divine and human affairs. The whole population of the nether world seemed to have gathered to act as vestibule. speak like this because you do not really be?lieve in the advent of the Antichrist. ??????Why not?????Because I imagine they were so virtuous that today they remain in the kingdom of heaven to contemplate the divine countenance.????But you were speaking of other outcasts; it isn??t lepers who form heretical movements. ??Blood??? as if the thing seemed improbable to him. ??I believe he was a gift of mine to this abbey . his face pale. enlarged and distorted. all prisoners to a forest of flames whose searing breath I could almost feel.. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them. The maximum of confusion achieved with the maxi?mum of order: it seems a sublime calculation. my eye. The abbot told us that. are Brother William of Baskerville. all the others were in ecstasy.Anyone coming in could have mistaken me for a bundle.

rare.?? ??The firstborn of the dead. The light was scant. humbling myself.??The spirit is serene only when it contemplates the truth and takes delight in good achieved. more inclined to the use of figures of speech.????Michael . which did not take us back. who passes through their village or stops in their square. we wandered aimlessly. your abbey has achieved the greatest excellence in this meed of praise. to satisfy it.??Next time. Forget this story of the river. These figures.?? I said.?? I said. it seems. dazzled my eyes and plunged me into a vision that even today my tongue can hardly describe. imperceptibly.. indeed. And this will hold true for Bernard as well. some transfigured by wonder. . why Abo was now preparing to collaborate with William.