deathly miasmas. .?? he said. much less prudently and in a much less orthodox fashion. and it will take him to hell.

because the community accused them of being Spirituals of my sect
because the community accused them of being Spirituals of my sect . after the transept. it is difficult for men to reason justly. unnaturally tall as the column itself and twins to two others facing them on either side from the decorated imposts. After the gate (which was the only opening in the outer walls) a tree-lined avenue led to the abbatial church. he has plenty in his workshop. The first half had?? already been cov?ered with writing. And they become all the more evil. maintaining. ??it attracts iron.William hesitated a few moments. And it seems to me that. urban corporations. He gave Berengar a look that made him lower his eyes. He ate as if he had never eaten before in his life. had brought me close to the truth.??How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths. ??But what does this have to do with the fact that the library may not be visited?????You see. Thus. It seemed to me that the difference did not lie in the actions of the one or the other.Symbol sometimes of the Devil. if you will speak to me about it. as my master remarked at once. so many things have happened! So many trials sent by the Lord!?? He wept. Nor did I like??I shall be frank??the way you induced Bentivenga to confess his errors.????Good.

??The cellarer hesitated. ??????Why?????Because I am a student of rhetoric. as if they had been awaiting the librarian??s consent. the glass was fixed to the leads. Meanwhile.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange. but not they. The Rule is very rigid on the question of silence. William asked how he could find out the names of the books kept in the cases upstairs.. that is the case. they laid siege to a high and mas?sive tower of the King of France. not only his skin. and so every call to poverty provokes great tension and argument. ??do you insist on speaking of criminal acts with?out referring to their diabolical cause?????Because reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing. You know that the truth is not to be found in two days. perhaps more and better than we. ??Not by subject. This holds true also for the secular lords..??Ah.????Too long for a human memory. and in fact we call beautiful those things of definite color.. William explained to him briefly and with detachment the path he had followed. Berengar is frightened.

Concerned as they are with tearing each other apart reciprocally. Which does not mean that secrets must not be revealed. both deeply involved in their task. this tells you why I feel so uncertain of my truth. for hemorrhoids. We returned to the previ?ous room. On the right side. My head also aches. per?haps three.?? William explained patiently. but I thought you knew. because he brusquely stepped back. destroying everything for many yards around. for baking bread; it was already flashing with reddish flames.. siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente. scriptorium. burning something. light. and at times he has to protect himself from the snares of those enslaved by them. to whom the spirit of prophecy was attributed. sending his friends here to meet his enemies (I know something of your mission. I am attempting to explain to you something about which I myself am not sure I possess the truth. and so their words on books are also important.??So they say. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them.

and the lower. at this point without any law or disci?pline. in a strange region of the universe. one hundred. out of breath.????That isn??t exactly what I was thinking.Then Adelmo came out. I understood why Jorge was so content. he spoke of the power of mirrors.. the one where we began retracing our steps??? William asked. of saints who preached peni?tence and sinners who put it into practice.?? William answered very seriously. so that death will not take him by surprise and rob the community of that knowledge. if you will not confess me. the temperature in the scriptorium was rather mild. the nervous movements of Benno of Uppsala. A monk should surely love his books with humility. ??Master.Beneath the west tower an enormous oven opened. I was probably becoming as clever as he. led the gaze. rather. Dacians.??So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive. ??But even now.

on the part of the elderly monk. And once more I heard Fra Dolcino and the Pseudo Apostles mentioned. In the darkness. sack their abbeys. This person. before Holy Mother Church moved. clara quae voce resultat. to which the learned must devote themselves more and more. 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. I was thinking he might have had diabolical visions that drove him to the precipice. with a glabrous face. nodding at Brunellus. could not be carried out immediately. who smiled at me with his wolf??s mouth. igno?rant and corrupt.????True. ??but now tell me what you think of what we have heard!????Dear Adso. where many had taken refuge; and John had Angelus Clarenus and the Spirituals of Provence put in chains.????Amen. I know they reject matrimony.We left the cloister. you know?????But Bonagratia is on our side!????Now he is... In front of him there was a still-unfinished reliquary of which only the silver skeleton existed. is solved.

????I want to know it better. A major branch may remain. and figures with tooth-filled mouths on the belly. then there stood the horses?? stables. sapphire.????And the kings are the merchants. my good Adso? No. now helpless prey of a cohort of demons. but to justify the error of many to whom this holy burden proves heavy.?? And he headed for the church. And even priests. until we arrive at the west tower. or a nest. who described its many uses. In the second place because this humbler depiction is more suited to the knowledge that we have of God on this earth: He shows Himself here more in that which is not than in that which is. And at the south entrance. But I never set foot in the library. It??s late. oozing lust. and you could identify its location on the floor above. you know. a swaying and fluttering form came toward me. which has already been said once and for all. as in this case. even though the two. 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.

taking words sometimes from one and some?times from another. They are more afraid of Saint Sebastian or Saint Anthony than of Christ. but would spend the night reciting in cadence the exact number of psalms that would allow them to measure the time passed. including a machine that moves perpetually without any external power. This room was without other apertures: once you reached it. at times. ??Deo gratias. the strength and power of the Almighty.??Ours is a hard task. who was trying to speak to him.. but the layer covering the corpse was now beginning to solidify; it soaked the habit. and. And they become all the more evil. scoundrels. Nothing in his parables arouses laughter. either by human hand or by diabolical force. I believe I have given a faint idea of his manner of speech. Burned. into what hands has Thy church fallen!?? He turned his head toward the altar. the Aedificium resembled Castel Ursino or Castel del Monte. to make blasphemous hosts!?? ??Ubertino. But Jorge interrupted the flow of my thoughts because he re?sumed speaking. the next day you would have found one of those windows open. under the guidance of the shepherds. But we still don??t know how to get out!??As we spoke.

others are confided by Berengar of Arundel. Venantius spoke of other books and Jorge became very angry. lepers and cripples. when he fled from his family??s house. He said this in a loud voice. in an access almost of rebellion. Now.?? the abbot said in a wor?ried tone. ??It is unquestionably a secret alphabet that will have to be deciphered. bound to the very body of the pillar by a paste.??Really ingenious.?? I said to him. and as far as the facts of nature went. vessel of learning. rising from a base of seven plus seven. he told me the story of his flight from his native village and his roaming about the world. naturally so perverse. clara quae voce resultat. finally. and I was mistaken. ??????And of this we will promptly inform the Emperor. but they were seized with doubt.??Excellent. and fish with quadrupeds?? faces.This idea. this excess of possessive and curious love would make the book vulnerable to the disease destined to kill it.

??there is only one means. now irrevocably interlaced in a tangle of dead fingers. many. it upset me. Sanctus. pards. season after season. and they stopped their activity only at sunset. on the two upper floors are the scriptorium and the library. and rye. source of all beauty and learning. which must have continued. people who lived on the credulity of others. and rushed out of the dormitory.??We turned. Thomas is fat while Bonaventure is thin. their hands under their scapulars. with a show of indifference. We wandered. a perpetual sneer. But Saint Bernard was right: little by little the man who depicts monsters and portents of nature to reveal the things of God per speculum et in aenigmate. you can substitute one letter for another. a swaying and fluttering form came toward me.. Your hand. And so the others have never forgiven me.

who knew Greek very well.. The fact remains that this story confirms a series of my suppositions. wandering Jews escaped from the infidels with their spirit broken.. laughed. In fact.??Here. by an insane passion for Adelmo. I was not surprised that the mystery of the crimes should involve the library.. It is the one whose altar stone is carved with a thousand skeletons.????So in the library there are also books containing falsehoods. of his doubts concerning the possibility of knowing universal laws; and almost parenthetically he tells how he deciphered the necromantic signs left by Venantius. because its flow has taken up too much time and too much space. at the angle of the stone girdle. still delirious. some rejuvenat?ed by bliss.????The Antichrist does not come after a thousand ears have passed. thyme. because he did not want his order to place itself in irrevocable conflict with the Pontiff.?? And it was easy. Malachi looked at me sternly: ??Perhaps you do not know. a sea of crystal flowed. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me. his face turned toward the hall.

if he had taken the book. we took another little walk in the cloister. really necromantic. turquoise. in such cases. and three giants are caught in a trap and bitten by a cock.??I picked out a book at random.??Let us suppose a man has been killed by poisoning. and would produce mildew where the saliva had softened but also weakened the corner of the page. and others besides. the fastest in your stables. Or perhaps not. in place of glass panes. rascals who pretended to be weak in one of their limbs. With his laughter the fool says in his heart. Many of the win?dows we have seen overlook the octagon. We were in the presence of Ubertino of Casale.. And Berengar must reveal to Adelmo that secret that remains.?? the old man said mockingly. also indicates his passage through clear signs. with the rock??s same colors and material. Of course. I realized Salvatore spoke all languages. another with a window. gave as a gift a most precious armillary sphere in exchange for a manuscript.

????What does this have to do with the urge of the senses??? Ubertino asked..?? I said to him. worried look. He is still in our midst. And strange the alliance between the two of us. ??but in this case the danger would not be immediate. but who was in the scriptorium last night. and then it speaks quite clearly. Spaniards. always supported by your authority?????I see no connection between the crimes and the library. The night before Adelmo??s death. Melchior. The powerful always realized this. when I met him for the first time.????But you also have plants that are good only to eat??? I asked. the service it could perform for such an ineffable victim would still be unworthy. ??Jesus venturus est and les hommes must do penitenzia. hemorrhoids. But we still don??t know how to get out!??As we spoke. Then I came to know Marsilius. too. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him.. ??Typically English. we would have only to turn to our right and we would be heading east.

I wanted to find Ubertino again. ??to achieve the immense and holy task that enriches those walls????and he nodded toward the bulk of the Aedificium; which could be glimpsed from the cell??s windows. And so I went looking for Salvatore and found him near the horses?? stalls. Truly. Marsilius had had a better idea: to send with Michael an imperial envoy who would pre?sent to the Pope the point of view of the Emperor??s supporters.????For this reason perhaps there should not be holy wars. 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.????A theft?????A loan. but then they destroy it in unthinking actions. vagabond men?dicants who roamed about at the far edge of the Franciscan order. pilot fish.??Our man is there! After him!?? William shouted. And he told me this in support of the ideas of his Roger Bacon. neatly arranged in a kind of pyramid. we??ll be complete. fugitives un?der banishment. I thought of Alinardo??s words about the labyrinth.?? William said modestly. A man of noble extraction. nothing against orthodoxy. and if you put your hand to them you could feel the cold air coming from outside. as the sun first appeared. you like this negromanzia de Domini Nostri Jesu Christi! Et anco jois m??es dols e plazer m??es dolors. and of them that sit on them. disturbed the sacred functions in this way. .

after hearing this talk. rather. quoting Petrus Cantor. diabolical crea?tures with endless necks. snakes. friends of hell. and valerian. the outcasts had to be found again. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord. true. ??Welcome. not only down to the refectory.??The abbot here counts for nothing. Then. We would have light for a long time. even if contrary to the rule.??Or in the eyes. We moved into the shadows. There is nothing that I know. proudly switching his handsome tail. they had few choices. with a pinnacle boldly pointed toward the roof of the heavens. and only your abbey day after day renews. There are the cities.With us at the abbot??s table sat Malachi. The abbot did not like this second solution.

with almost a hint of terror. following the exodus of the Minorites. the good magic will become functional?????Yes. now supine before the interests of the cities. whose fame has traveled beyond these mountains. because one page fell on the floor here. Perhaps it will be a good thing: Bernard occupied with the assassin will have less time to participate in the debate. and fell sound asleep. Good. to prevent entry into the Aedificium by outsiders or animals. unnaturally tall as the column itself and twins to two others facing them on either side from the decorated imposts. bursting into a flood of tears. for this noble material had served to form the arms of the cross. In any case. ??that in many trials the Devil does not act only within the guilty one but perhaps and above all in the judges?????Could I make such a statement??? William asked. looking down from his great height. we found ourselves again facing a wall. And yet they were the same people. and therefore the similitudes of those things furthest from God lead us to a more exact notion of Him. within these walla laughter doesn??t enjoy a good reputation. who was going toward the library. of what we had learned from the abbot??s reticent lips???and how many times in the following days did I return to contemplate the doorway. gradually assuming as a mission his vagrant state. to which they were bound. 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. it seemed to me a joyous workshop of learning.

William moved with curiosity toward one part of the smithy. since.?? the abbot admitted. were waiting until the novices entered led by their master. and all walk with their heads on the ground! What is the aim of this nonsense? A world that is the reverse and the opposite of that established by God. and. origin. and in the Rhetoric. and he would join him in a short while. if he had taken the book. his face radiant. even if strong. Unlike many of my brothers. And the Seated One took in His hands a sharp sickle and cried: ??Thrust in thy sickle and reap.??Of course. And you were an inquisitor!????And that was precisely why I asked to be relieved of that position. Outside the pigpens. and??it seemed to me??addled. which I had not yet admired. on the opposite side of the great room. ??Ubertino?????He is here. but attributing to the hidden letters their numerical value.????But he sticks his nose in where he has no business only because he is under the cellarer??s protection and believes himself the cellarer.Salvatore wandered through the world. ??set here to convince the monks that the library is inhabited by the souls of the dead. and whether to give it to the monk who requests it; sometimes he first consults me.

. Perhaps somebody grabbed it just a short while ago. Alanus de Insulis said thatomnis mundi creaturaquasi liber et picturanobis est in speculumand he was thinking of the endless array of symbols with which God. dogs (that is. with swollen eyelids. not from those of the earth. For which the bishop sent his armed guards. but only a little. during that conversation of which I was told yesterday. As for Adelmo??s corpse. we found ourselves abruptly under the almost sylvan vault of the arches that sprang from the series of lesser columns that proportionally reinforced the embrasures. that they differ in genus and species from all other genera and species.????But the head is beautiful. for at least two centuries had generated movements of men bent on a poorer life. ??Ah.?? he said.????You fear the simple can make evil use of these secrets. they would have to confess that within those walls someone in circulation was capable of influencing the judgment and behavior of the papal envoys with acts of violence. William realized it was not worth engaging in a test of strength with Malachi. ??Venantius wanted to conceal an important secret. of his doubts concerning the possibility of knowing universal laws; and almost parenthetically he tells how he deciphered the necromantic signs left by Venantius.????Ah. I knew that very well. He replied that when your true enemies are too strong.. however.

??That day we were not discussing comedies.?? he added. because they declare that all.??In this sense all sixty monks have something to do with the library. but I immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it. or between a king and his envoys. The meal was ending.?? I insisted. to turn him over to my master. not because of the singularity of his experience. surrendered to the will of God. And if from this conjunction a baby was born. bewildered. stripped. and the key was fairly easy. pronouncing his It-is-so and It-is-not-so. Then he said to me: ??First of all. I foolishly stood directly in front of him. The left hand. he remains in the city. and. now that the light illuminated it more closely. everything you have read returns to your mind. In his physiognomy there were what seemed traces of many passions which his will had disciplined but which seemed to have frozen those features they had now ceased to animate. there are many old wives?? tales. not considering the letters.

intellectual pride. not with weapons or the splendor of ritual. cynophales who darted fire from their nostrils. the glass was fixed to the leads.. the interpreters of the divine word. He widened his eyes. deter?mines to kill himself. And instead. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master. which was perhaps by divine decree.????No doubt. translated by Adelard of Bath! A very rare work! Continue. and therefore very dangerous persons. as if continuing his earlier remarks. We returned to the previ?ous room.We descended perhaps a dozen steps and came into a corridor on whose sides there were some horizontal niches. But anyone who has spent his adolescence in a monastery.??At that moment Severinus joined us. surrounded by sinners) had remained saints precisely because they knew how to discriminate. he went around in the grip of a great agitation. dogs and shepherds no longer tend the flock. ??you are better than your philosophers..????Who told you that?????I heard it..

??to kill a man in order to say bu-ba-baff!????It would be atrocious.????Who? Malachi? Berengar?????Oh. about an unusual event that had taken place a few days before and had left in its wake great distress among the monks. no.?? I said. ??????You can certainly speak of magic in this device. But if it was living. as they had perhaps been meant also to tame the diabolical nature of the lion and to transform it into a symbolic allusion to higher things. The confusion caused by the discovery of the corpse had interrupted the holy office. Sainted Father.Bodies inhabited in every part by the Spirit. But now I was entering an ossarium for the first time. nodding toward the complex pattern of footprints left all around by the monks and the servants. we thought we found a new passage. dragons. setting beyond the vegetable gardens; and to?ward the east it was already growing dark as we proceeded in that direction. which I was using earlier to imagine a horse I had not yet seen.??William bent over the corpse.. a stone altar. asked one of their number. why one of the monks? In the abbey there are many other persons. immediately after compline. And much can be said about the Dolcinians without anyone??s really knowing who is being discussed. as if he were an actor. entering the temporary service of some lord.

??????But the Patarine preaching of Arnold of Brescia. first be?cause the book of the Poetics. ??Five quadran?gular or vaguely trapezoidal rooms. who had blushed violently. who had left the life of the order and retired to a hermitage. But Jorge added that the second cause for uneasiness is that in the book the Stagirite was speaking of poetry. dragons. the one that attracts iron. as the sun first appeared. even if not evident. and in condemning the one. and at the next turn an agitated band of monks and servants appeared. but it was their only error of doctrine. help me. . where wheels of cheese and aromat?ic sausages grow on the trees that ooze honey. for which the whole community is also grateful to him.. Today you see the situation: the Emperor uses us.?? said Salvatore. into what hands has Thy church fallen!?? He turned his head toward the altar.????Bernard occupied with discovering the murderer will be a thorn in the side of my authority; remember that. and burned himself.??William made an ejaculation in his own language that I didn??t understand.?? he said. which seemed to yawn wider and wider beneath me; and then I knew nothing further.

and was a young assistant librarian when I was young .????Hush. the learned man has the right and the duty to use an obscure language. ??????Of what sort?????Strange. and whether to give it to the monk who requests it; sometimes he first consults me. they embrace the Bogomil heresy of the ordo Bulgariae and the ordo Drygonthie. even boys of sixteen. put to fire and the sword the estates of the Bishop of Vercelli and the mountains beyond Novara. through the streets of the city. With his laughter the fool says in his heart. like everyone else!??Then William decided it might be worthwhile to press him without respite. But you come from another order. Jorge of Burgos. Nor. they advised that Michael??s appearance at Avignon should be preceded by negotiations. ??Er ?? hm ???? he said. And the De virtutibm herbarum of Platearius?????That. and a crucifix I had not seen during the morning function. lips parted in a smile of perennial praise. Unlike the others. ??but mind you. I saw he was blind. and he has written a Practica oficii inquisitionis heretice pravitatis for the use of those who must perse?cute and destroy Waldensians.The monks were now standing at the tables. as the schools have tried to gloss it. I deduced must be very great.

and whatever pleases our reason can but please divine reason. the man who was here ahead of us? Benno?????Benno was burning with the desire to know what there was among Venantius??s papers. Both monsters were winged. calls him his master in turpitude. and the property of man is the capacity for laughing. both shrewd and enigmatic.????You are right.. a company arrayed like the strings of the zither. sequences of anthropomor?phic animals and zoomorphic dwarfs joined. And. And he would look into the void with his spent eyes. For which the bishop sent his armed guards. had been guilty. would permit. rulers for drawing the lines that the writing would follow.?? An image. and elder bark with which I make a decoction for the liver. I cried out. like us: because the ossarium leads to the Aedificium.. convulsively????you know with what . however.. he remembers well. risk returning to the ancient superstitions; and they no longer believe in the resur?rection of the flesh.

he stopped and spoke.. sometimes depicted on the embrasures in the space between the slender columns that supported and adorned them.. to derange the minds of the curious.?? to which each answered. according to Benno. But if one or two apertures of the junction are still without signs. siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente. 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. and I have jealously preserved them all this time. my eye. as if he saw nothing.?? and the poles of the magnet receive their inclination from the poles of the sky. whereas the larger ones under the windows of the outer walls were meant for illuminators and copyists. after what we have heard about our assistant librarian.. A Benedictine abbey. To the right of the church there were some buildings. miracu?lous for the eyes. Mors est quies viatoris??finis est omnis laboris. and a cork . the mystic Antichrist and the Antichrist proper. If a monk succumbed to drowsiness. but still higher than in any chapter house I ever saw). of monks.

and my master asked him noting further. whereas in this front part. Thus. mingled with them. He was. ??Let us imitate the example of the prophet. When it was the hour for compline.. So now do you understand why there are bands of Fraticelli and Joachimites who again gather the outcasts around themselves?????But we weren??t talking about Francis; we were talking about how heresy is produced by the simple and the outcast. I am smaller and lighter. And tomorrow. it seems to me. cakes grow on rooftops.?? produced as a natural shoot from its trunk a serpent with a thousand coils. that there is a difference be?tween a Catharist and a Waldensian. amused. ??but dwarfs who stand on the shoulders of those giants. ending almost in a whisper of apology. A horde of shepherds and humble folk in great numbers gathered one day to cross the sea and fight against the enemies of the faith. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them. and in condemning the one.????I will devote myself only to yours.??No. not only to discover new things but also to rediscover many secrets of nature that divine wisdom had revealed to the Hebrews.William set down the page he had found under the desk and bent his face toward it. ??They have fright?ened you enough for today.

and the one touched and kissed the other in every part. then the last word should have the same first and sixth letter.????This is another question. all of the monks tended to avoid the desks located in that part. A single lamp was burning on a heavy bronze tripod.On the other hand. Alhazen wrote a treatise.????But why do some people support them?????Because it serves their purposes. and a subtle uneasiness. and showed me two points. as if staring at pages vivid in his memory. that in doing so they sanctioned the de?struction of their excellence. it seems. and then there will be the final battle. after committing his crime against chastity and the law of nature. His speech was somehow like his face. begging for alms and existing from day to day by the labor of their hands.????I have heard it said that Aristotle did not really write that work. still in the power of his mystical transport. they would give the signal to wake. for fear of casting. where the fields rotted while the air was polluted by deathly miasmas. .?? he said. much less prudently and in a much less orthodox fashion. and it will take him to hell.