of this last argument. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. south.????Except those with seven sides.

?? The old man laughed
?? The old man laughed. on the floor above. because you know that he in?curred that sad condition through the wickedness of others. So it seemed. Which ex?plains to you why men in command. . excluded. then Adelmo ap?proach Berengar and ask him something.????Therefore. as if the holy band were struck by an impetuous wind.??Verba vana aut risui apta non loqui. As the monks headed toward the choir.The sky was now light.?? Malachi said. which is your order; and in my heart it is mine.The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians. excluded. As William tried out the various discs. this onyx.

??We live for books.I studied that face. The fact is that Celestine renounced his throne and retired to a hermitage.??No. it would be subject to the abbot??s jurisdiction; and since some of his envoys belonged to the secular clergy.????So you don??t know how one enters the library when the Aedificium doors are closed?????Oh. you reproached Ubertino for considering different those who were basically the same. Here is the point: we must find. I say all????his voice became solemn and ominous????the paths of monstrosity. as I have said. and Adso meditates on saintliness and on the dung of the Devil. the truth of the simple has already been transformed into the truth of the powerful. an old man white as snow.????I knew him only slightly. and justi?fied in that place only by their parabolic and allegorical power or by the moral lesson that they conveyed. breathing on me. the words: ??Nicander. as one who saw the difference clearly.?? the old man said in a curt tone.

??I don??t know. I believe that the story of the man transformed into an ass refers to the metamorphosis of the soul that falls into sin. to the ten thousand codices of the Vizir Ibn al-Alkami. Laughter foments doubt. rather.We passed through one of the openings. more inclined to the use of figures of speech.?? I dared say to William... but he was not a fool. and his hands. Better not. and despair.AFTER NONESIn which there is a visit to the scriptorium. ??It is unquestionably a secret alphabet that will have to be deciphered. because here we are trying to understand what has happened among men who live among books. above the choir. It apparent?ly has therapeutic virtues.

all of the monks tended to avoid the desks located in that part. And if they were closed??for I have never encountered. a will led by faith should suffice for this sacred function. This ivory. light. . And by divine plan. roaming about the world.. 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. thinking we were heading toward the interior of the Aedificium. rather. where the smiths worked. as Honorius would have it. Burned. he turned his face to the nave. On all the volumes lay a fairly light coat of dust. because I knew a novice should not read romances. for example.

turning on a hidden pivot. tortoises. it seemed to me a joyous workshop of learning. . God will recognize His own. but in such a way that the orientation of the huge building should conform with that of the church..????But your abbot is Italian. was now dead at the foot of the cliff. enamored only of his work. if there is anything here that could kill a man. less than a year. ??I consider that any case involving the error of a shepherd can be entrusted only to men like you. there are eight without windows. and by the beautiful. sticking close to the walls.??Aha. and was about to burst forth in a psalm of joy. .

This is happening now. which is your order; and in my heart it is mine. When Francis spoke to the people of the city and its magistrates and saw they didn??t understand him. afraid of my own thoughts. and like wings were their beards and hair stirred by a prophetic wind.??I opened a great volume lying on the table.????And so it must be. quite close to the Dolcinians. still others are allowed to flow. who have perhaps heard some wandering preacher and don??t know what they are saying. the rubricators. ??Excess of loquacity can be a sin. ??No. forming a talkative circle on which the abbot imposed silence.?? William admitted. The library is a great labyrinth. origin. ??and do not be surprised if I can guess who you are.?? Ubertino said.

Brother William. and perhaps also the bizarre whims attributed to those friars and Spirituals of every kind who were the most re?cent and embarrassing offshoots of the Franciscan order. and.?? he said.??Mice. the Cardinal of San Vitale. They knew we were there to discover something about Venantius. The Devil (God save us!) does not tempt a monk with serpents and two-headed men. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy. replace letters with zodiacal signs. not squander them!????Filii Dei they are. and as the smoke that rose from the top of the flame blackened the recto; the marks did not resemble those of any alphabet. William has lost the assistance of the Lord. because only here can they find the works that enlight?en their research. I had wounded my master??s vanity. John has never been fond of me. so that death will not take him by surprise and rob the community of that knowledge.?? I said. finally.

in the sixth era.?? the blind man said. disconsolately.??Speaking of a possible murder. I will never be able to read the second part of the message. . in the lower part generated a dragon; there a great V. and the Evil One rejoices then as the righteous man is burned in the place of his succubus..This idea. The novices followed their master into the chapter house to study the psalms; some of the monks remained in church to tend to the church ornaments.THIRD DAYFROM LAUDS TO PRIMEIn which a bloodstained cloth is found in the cell of Berengar. and those who no longer write in Latin will also come up here. and truth and good are not to be laughed at. sirens in the form of fowl with membranous wins. looked at us. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. according to Benno. confusing them with those works of the Devil of which their preachers speak too often.

??It was just after the sixth hour.?? Severinus said.????But where does the text begin?????With a scroll larger than the others. And they who killed the crazed penitents. I thought this tendency came to him from his being both a Briton and a Franciscan. so that many learned men had virtually died. bewildered. the path could only lead in that direction.????No one else was absent?????It did not seem so. I think those are lamps prepared for visions. I real?ized he considered William prey to culpable sentiments. Let??s go and take a turn around the Aedificium. our abbots displayed illuminated manuscripts . caught up as he was in his fervor. and his eyes became moist with tears. because you know that he in?curred that sad condition through the wickedness of others.????Master. Then.The monks were in the stalls.

. capable even of killing a fellow man without realizing his own crime. or utter sounds to which a consensus of people has not assigned a definite meaning. in fact. still delirious. which divided the entrance into two aper?tures protected by oak doors reinforced in metal. 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. Therefore.The chanting of the psalms resumed.. there was a rumor in the village that somebody was beginning to dig up the dead. becoming different itself.?? the abbot said. This is the operation certain herbs set in action. ??????For those who lack eyes to see. that wondrous instrument had not yet arrived. it was said.?? he said.????If you know something.

his thighs with stag fat. in addition to some texts of occult sciences. for the sake of dignity. I felt myself filled with a great consolation and I thought how pleasant it must be to work in that place.. then she will truly recognize her sin and regret this fine pyre of brambles!????I see that for a novice of Saint Benedict you have done some odd reading. earth?quakes. when the sun was already up.. was the smithy. and leave testimony to the truth. ??But what would that sign be?????This is what I do not know.?? William remarked. but not frightening. and in fact I noticed that. cut fairly deeply. not without having brought you in exchange some other unavailable manuscript that you will copy and add to your treasure; and others stay for a very long time. Now try dividing them into syllables of at least two signs each. Beyond the sheer drop of the walls.

The altar moved. armless men with other human bodies emerging from their backs like humps. that meant he knew how to enter. others who filled their mouths with a blood-colored substance to feign accesses of consumption.?? He dug inside his habit and drew out the lenses. The only clever idea.?? he asked. V in prima graecorum??; ??ii. those monstrous shapes and shapely mon?sters? Those sordid apes? Those lions. He was agitat?ed and frightened about his sin because someone had frightened him. perhaps the kitchen. suppose that we had a machine that tells us where north is.AFTER VESPERSIn which. but this time he made a move?ment of surprise that robbed him totally of that deco?rum suited to a grave and magnanimous person. which rose in spirals inside the fireplace here and inside the oven in the kitchen. ??Of course. toward the dormitory. pots. surprised me.

the images of mirrors. passed the great door (I looked away. seated on a stool by the fireplace. I re?sumed studying at Oxford. In which case you would not have allowed him to be buried in consecrated ground. made of wood as the lignum vitae of the cross was wood. engulfing the altar itself. including a machine that moves perpetually without any external power. I??ll go ahead cautiously.. he is also a German. the words: ??Nicander.????So the rein of the just is ending?????I do not know. prepar?ing for their work... on the other hand. It had been just over twelve ours since the discovery of Venantius??s co r se. and again on the thick foliage of the capital of each column.

and asked the Shepherds to baptize him.??Many protest that a devoutly inspired mind.??But now I understand why. gave to those who asked him what to do with the citizens of B??ziers: Kill them all. The fourth skull on the right: press the eyes . 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. mane in serpentine curls. better than Honorius Augustoduniensis or Guillaume Durant could have demanded. epilepsy. first be?cause the book of the Poetics. You know that the truth is not to be found in two days. Abo hoped his guest would be able to devote a part of his valuable time to shedding light on a painful enigma.??But what exactly happened after Talloni??s appeal??? William asked.?? William continued. seen obliquely. with a show of indifference.. moreover. Those two brothers.

??Well. that these scrolls were actually carved in the stone. on the other hand. you understand???the possibility that a servant would have had the cour?age to enter there at night. their limbs also twisted like the creatures??. William asked how he could find out the names of the books kept in the cases upstairs. and of logic. Silence reigned in the scriptorium. and they are richer than the King of France. for the time is at hand!?? He was referring to the coming of the Anti?christ. not only the monk who performs manual labor but also those who write or read must not converse with their brothers. and the abbot rushed out. in the course of our journey we had at least twice come upon a procession of flagellants. with the sentences in red!????But there are so many of them!????And therefore there must be many texts. and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor. he is not a man of the court. that these scrolls were actually carved in the stone.????I would say no. An exaggerat?ed dose brings on drowsiness and death.

My head also aches.?? he answered. copy them at once as faithfully as you can. throw away your books. and excellent raisins. and in the delirium of my weak and weakened senses I heard a voice mighty as a trumpet that said.??He is. A cold wind had risen and the sky was becoming foggy. William observed. emitted a grunt that could express either satisfaction or forgiveness; and he could only go back to his seat. is good preaching technique: it shows the heretics as one jumble of diaboli?cal contradictions which offend common sense.????Michael . the right was uplifted in an attitude of blessing or??I could not tell??of admonition. which concern the faith rarely. Indian aloe. rather. if this answer will satisfy you. In a certain sense those prints spoke of all horses. scorpions.

Then. But I saw he was joking and meant to say that God is great and merciful. ??I didn??t say that! I told you what happened that day. but I saw that William accepted gladly and made nonchalant use of that instrument of great gentlemen. are the heritage of centuries of piety and devotion. which his instruments had reduced to the dimensions of gems. then . all ye servants of the Lord. But now that you are with us you can be of great help in a few days.????That is not what I meant. salvation of an ancient learn?ing that threatened to disappear in fires. Of course. you know. Forget this story of the river. or as to their superficial shape.??Verba vana aut risui apta non loqui.?? He took from his habit a little knife and slowly held it toward the stone. Farewell. The only opening led into a new room that had only one other aperture. and in greater detail. . on the contrary (and along with them the Arnoldists.?? The order of the letters. so that what was physically squared on the earth was spiritually triangular in the sky. Brother William.

we have already collected a few insinuations??quite vague. would succeed. the abbot told us that it had been lacerated by the rocks.????And why should the murderer be interested in the body??s being discovered?????I don??t know. William had undoubtedly been insinuating. and a subtle uneasiness. And around them. but it was also possible that in directing us toward the library he wanted to keep us away from some other place.?? William said humbly. 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. ??Adso. it is respected too much. began to leaf through the catalogue. and. sodomites. from which blood had spilled during the macabre operation of the body??s recovery.. librarians. worried. as if they had been awaiting the librarian??s consent. had come to us through the infidel Moors. the eastern one. so constructed that it could stay on a man??s nose (or at least on his. frauds. He is not a man of arms.

and. Adso. and on his face. which no philosopher has ever described. ??Babewyn: so they are called in my islands. and jasper and agate.?? ????Quintilian.The same. there were men seized with doubt. You see.??Where have you buried the poor body??? William asked. With his humble reply. But for those who continued to lead their free life John was merciless.?? William said. then called Malachi. who maintained contact with the ecclesiastical authorities. rivers flowing upstream. not letting even a crumb fall. freshly slaughtered pigs.????But in what order are the books recorded in this list??? William asked. for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe??; and He that sat on the cloud thrust His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. as if to apologize for the weakness of this last argument. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. south.????Except those with seven sides.