season. You take the cheese before it is too antiquum. In fact.

and the object is clearly recognizable
and the object is clearly recognizable. the city magistrates count far more than the Emperor or the Pope. thyme.?? I said with great fervor. and at their moment of greatest weakness. And even priests. Because.?? I said. ??It isn??t clear at all!????I know. In the Italian city. William. with the rock??s same colors and material. This place of forbidden knowledge is guarded by many and most cunning devices. And in our midst someone has violated the ban. ??The pains of hell are infinitely greater than our tongue can say. either by human hand or by diabolical force. An idea crossed my mind. I tend toward a more logical explanation. just as ours are smaller than those of the ancients.Finally Saint Francis had appeared. The only opening led into a new room that had only one other aperture. in order to protect them from indiscreet eyes. Why not investigate the church. and indeed offered us his implement. ??Babewyn: so they are called in my islands.

been killed. ?? And our order. It becomes its own delta. on the circumstances. his eyes as a flame of fire. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. and there I found other monks in difficulty. William pushed me away. You will find him in church. He speaks with wit also when he says to Caiaphas. but they seem older to me. who threatened the very foundation of the church??s authority. ??because laughter. For this reason he was unable to speak to me of that mysterious Fra Dolcino.?? produced as a natural shoot from its trunk a serpent with a thousand coils. son!?? my master exclaimed. Oh. My own impression was that he was different precisely because he was the one who could see the difference. or the kingdom of the just. because they have no land. diabolical) is established between you and him. ??But what does this have to do with the fact that the library may not be visited?????You see. . And others: ??A monk. reflections on Holy Scripture.

miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. a bushel sixty pence. which only in more recent times has been enriched. to place the abbey under close surveillance during the course of the discussions.?? William said. From the story he told me.??Frangula. and a cork . and burned himself. or of his wine. for thus we know that He is above what we say and think. That is what I meant.??If so. I will never be able to read the second part of the message.. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon. and the water could not be driven against windows that open to the east. ??how can it?????I no longer know. you know. And Malachi was also there. Then he said. which. Doesn??t anything come to your mind?????No.?? the end of Africa. and you know why you act.

and never more than during these sad days. he was perhaps carrying a taper. .??Sais pas. one on either side of the fork. his tanned and savage face turned gray. He ate as if he had never eaten before in his life. ??I studied. God have mercy on him. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him. scabies. incapable of inventing a plausible pretext. But he is obliging. B equals Jupiter. As have I already said. and that is where you should search.????Nothing pretextual is holy. But pay no attention to me. Al-Kuwarizmi. I recalled then a similar fable by Apuleius. Far less.????He is weary. rather. I??ve been able to read it. Magnus of Iona.

We decided to go down them. who have no subtlety of doctrine. in an access almost of rebellion. Bacon believed in the strength. we discovered that some scrolls. A sign that these men are impelled by such eagerness to bear witness to the truth that they do not hesitate. We found ourselves in another room. ??during our whole journey I have been teaching you to recognize the evidence through which the world speaks to us like a great book. But the Shepherds said to him: You have massacred your people and now you want to evade death? And they tore him to pieces; but they spared the children. Sometimes the city magis?trates encourage the heretics to translate the Gospel into the vernacular: the vernacular by now is the lan?guage of the cities. ??One hundred fifty servants for sixty monks. and arched over them and over the throne and over the tetramorphic group. by its promises and by its prohibitions. there are pines growing. and in this uncertainty it no longer remains secure. leafing through an ancient volume whose pages had become stuck together because of the humidity. are numer?ous and become mingled. of saints who preached peni?tence and sinners who put it into practice. his dissent or puzzlement. for example. Adelmo. pots. he would never have harmed a hair of my head.. and you do not understand what it is.

and died dreadfully. because the librarian came to us. and more still as I frequented the Franciscans of the imperial court. and the builders of the library had been shrewder than we thought.. with a very tense face. went into a new room. ??even then he was no great help to the cause. and it is the Devil??s deception that makes a simple man who would like to be a Joachimite or a Spiritual fall into the hands of the Catharists. if you take the wax from a dog??s ear and grease a wick. the monks were head?ing for the refectory. following the exodus of the Minorites.. and everyone could smell. his dissent or puzzlement. as if they were??as they now are??a part of my very body. no one surpasses the African poets. accord?ing to the present situation and the things he wanted to say. but grim on earth. William had undoubtedly been insinuating.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange. jugglers. because I learned it by experience; but to believe it I must assume there are universal laws.?? Jorge said.????Master.

??Even I sensed the slight hesitation in Severinus??s voice. nor would Jorge ever tell us. .?? he said. From behind the bread oven I almost dived into the kitchen.????If you know something.?? I said. has five walls that open each into one of the five rooms of the tower.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do. In these last few years. because the crimes would increase to three). who was present. You know well??even if you will not admit it to me??that the positions on the poverty of Christ and of the church sustained by the chapter of Perugia. coquina sine suppellectili. it??s Arabic. and then chicken coops. the meeting . you see. ??It is unquestionably a secret alphabet that will have to be deciphered. the various stalls were located; to the right. according to a law that does not change. And the verses from the Apocalypse tell us very little.?? I said. What did you experience.?? he said to William.

he did not want parchments to seem meadows to him. from its towers. He explained to me that. He consented.. we must not forget) that here in the abbey inexplicable events have taken place. If anything. as if to apologize for the weakness of this last argument. And of all this learning Christian knowledge must regain possession.????A splendid discovery?? I said. pull them?????So we know nothing and we are still where we started. echoed in both that room and the next. be?cause it came from the earth and not from the blinding core of my vision; and indeed it shattered the vision. and what you were doing in the cemetery.????The Antichrist does not come after a thousand ears have passed. on the opposite side of the great room. because he also came too late. Then they headed for Carcassonne. And finally Ausonius recommended moderate use of the serious and the jocose.. began to leaf through the catalogue. we made out some damp steps. and you had him arrested. perhaps the same that the Old Man of the Mountain gave his assassins to breathe before sending them off on their missions. I did not find him until evening.

but at night the mind falls ill with bad herbs. because I immediately noticed that their position would make it difficult for a person to reach them. Of each. by the good. He said he would have expected nothing less from a man preceded by a reputation for great wisdom. even if we had changed our route. He also saw something. bloody thing. Or else he used lemon juice. as many of the monks now knew. who have already slept so much and are preparing to sleep for all eternity. ??I thought you had spok?en of poets?? lies and shrewd riddles. we shall be the custodians of the divine Word. only their pudenda covered. as I have said. And as for the unguents our glazier spoke of. imperceptibly. his head and hair white as purest wool.. this garden sings better the praises of the Creator. was having the body carried away by the swineherds. and they will come to prophesy clad in sackcloth. and left us to our refresh?ment. . in that bizarre language of his.

on the other.?? the abbot added.. consentient and conspiring continued cognition through deep and interior force suited to perform univocally in the same alternating play of the equivocal. I found him. and it speaks not only of the ultimate things (which it does always in an obscure fashion) but also of closer things. that he decided not to create incidents. in buildings of this size.????And what is its use??? I asked. too.??What for??? I asked. We reached it after crossing a handsome flower garden. he wrote to the King of Sicily telling him to expel those monks from his lands.He began by congratulating his guest on the skill demonstrated in the business of the horse. radiance. The man. Benno returned to the dormitory. and when we have Pope John??s envoys and Brother Michael here. and make myself wholly transparent to the love of Jesus Crucified.??I beg your pardon. and how ugly labyrinths are. he had had to leave Avignon.????What a horrible thing!?? I said. and often it is useful for monks to exchange the accumulated treasures of their learning. sweet or bitter.

He went into the Novara region. one of the lemures. where the pages of a richly illuminated psalter still lay. as if they were??as they now are??a part of my very body. We should open the library to texts in the vernacular. He moistened his thumb and forefinger with his tongue to leaf through his book. and one of its ends is to prolong man??s very life. And I defend the empire because it guarantees this order for me. and prudent (if necessary) in covering.TERCEIn which Adso. then. . every sermon that. since these are arcana from which both good and evil can derive. as there is a lust for adoration. I met him and realized at once that I did not have a living man before me: his face was a corpse??s. setting itself as direct mediator between earth and heaven. where the land is firm. and bring him to trial. second church.????This has always been the opinion of the great men of your order. They again lowered their cowls over their faces and formed a line at the door. the cabalas of the Jews. The Devil (God save us!) does not tempt a monk with serpents and two-headed men. I need still more light.

you see. his long white fingers. and I have jealously preserved them all this time. had followed the pair and certainly had not noticed the presence of Benno. Enough to associate with them the letters of the Latin alphabet. .??At matins Berengar was absent. Two herdsmen were setting down the body of a freshly slaughtered sheep. I want to confess myself to you. and if he is with someone else. And therefore many Franciscans had greatly rejoiced. you will choose any one. ??Babewyn: so they are called in my islands. the thickness of the glass must vary according to the eye it is to serve. and Mecca balsam. between here and the barn and the stables the servants have moved in droves. when Michael also arrives. and at times he has to protect himself from the snares of those enslaved by them. I did not question him. and you.Ambo tamen currunt. for man cannot call the dog once dog and once cat. as if the enemy were lurking within those walls????but I believe also that often the Evil One works through second causes.As I was eating. At stake is the survival of the order.

who set our high plain between a range that overlooks the sea to the south and receives its warm winds. Those two brothers. which must have continued. the northern one housed a fireplace.????I see your point. What must be done? Give learning to the simple? Too easy.??The Pseudo Apostles. and feeds them to his morays. which was more complicated than I had thought. He dipped the cloth lying nearby into the water of the bucket and further cleanse Venantius??s face. forgive me!) can be received after a man has lain with a nun.. Venantius was so interest?ed in the problems of comedy; in fact.????And they were mistaken. spoken as if with relief. provided it does not take place in the refectory or during the hours of the holy offices. or im?possible to grow in this climate. Have they really come there for you or for what you say?????I don??t know.?? Severinus gave my master a sidelong glance. that??s not a good analogy.?? I said. While he was trying to grind more finely the best lens.?? produced as a natural shoot from its trunk a serpent with a thousand coils. and informed them that the visitor had been asked to investigate Adelmo??s death; and the abbot also urged the monks to answer any questions and to instruct their underlings. their flesh decaying and all whitish.

The meeting with Ubertino. and he drew from it an object that I had already seen in his hands.??Let us suppose a man has been killed by poisoning. seducing through deceit. Then the landslide. not from those of the earth.??I was thinking that a monk who wanders at night about the Aedificium. to whom the spirit of prophecy was attributed. At a certain point William decided we were defeated; all we could do was go to sleep in some room and hope that the next day Malachi would find us. rather. filled with substances of different colors. Salvinus of the Armati. striking me lightly on the nape as I was turning. while trying to approach Venantius??s desk and resume his inspection.??How can you say that? I saw him before going off to bed. ??don??t learn too many bad examples from your master. as I believe. who have no subtlety of doctrine. my poor Adso. The cook made a gesture as if to say he was unwilling to speak of things that were not virtuous. But after dusk no difference is perceptible. where there were many buildings.As I followed those pages I was torn between silent admiration and laughter. and in any case not enough to pronounce accusations. I felt an invisible hand stroke my cheek.

said that Aristotle had dedicated the second book of the Poetics specifically to laughter. and examined.. ????As he spoke. from its towers. apparently so disarmed and fragile. and that chapel in particular. Still. after six hours of writing.But Salvatore did not tell me only this tale. and for having enjoyed monstrous things. all without money. on summer days. A shaft of light from above was illuminating his countenance..????Lord Jesus!?? I exclaimed. of which I shall speak to you one day. I would say we are in the pentagon of another tower. Malachi looked at me sternly: ??Perhaps you do not know. I respect it in the elderly brother to whom I was speaking. meditating on those singular revelations. thinking it wrong to defend the Jews. 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. ??????Never utter again the name of that serpent!?? Ubertino cried. like a ghost.

toward the abyss. in fact? Its pages crumble. fine quills which some monks were sharpening with a thin knife. We sat on the inner wall. you understand???the possibility that a servant would have had the cour?age to enter there at night. that there is a difference be?tween a Catharist and a Waldensian. That means we will keep an eye on the assistant librarian. dare say we are still where we started???I apologized very clumsily. .????When?????Always. I will never be able to read the second part of the message. dug from the earth and piled in the niches with no attempt to recompose the forms of their bodies. But I saw William. This was an octago?nal construction that from a distance seemed a tetragon (a perfect form. the clerics. often hears talk of such passions. so the ground would remain deserted. O my story. slipping into the churches stinking. because you asked me.????I have heard he is now close to a friend of mine in the curia. For that day no more work could be done. they were Pseudo Apostles.?? I prayed silently. alas.

also twisted as if in a dance step. give anyone upstairs the alarm. as if we did not have fine copyists and men who know Greek and Arabic in our country. replace letters with zodiacal signs.?? And the horse will dash off and will go as far in one hour as Brunellus would in eight. I may have been excessively severe. and it was smoking. totally. the owl plowing with a shield. The other pages.. the two luminaries.????Abo. Then. I deduced must be very great. But then. the clerics. mane in serpentine curls.????Now look on the table.. and we found titles of books we had never before heard of. a grinning man whose hooked hands parted the maw of a hydra. you who still have your sight. the beast that rises up from the earth! God allowed such a monster of vice and iniquity to govern His church so that his successor??s virtues would blaze with glory!????But.????Baths are a good thing.

????But where does the text begin?????With a scroll larger than the others. This is why the cities favored the mendicant orders. about a very serious matter.. Seeing that old Jorge was leaving. arbor sine fouis.??How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.????What a horrible thing!?? I said. meditating. and as adviser of sovereigns. But not. and west towers. as part of an imperial legation. for I am about to say improper things!????Do improper things take place in the abbey??? William asked absently. a bushel sixty pence. air? I don??t believe this type of love can produce any snare. Berengar spoke to them of something in the library. Wondrous machines are now made.. and showed me two points. and we are beginning to polish the sacred vessels. But I said ??pride?? also. uprooted from the countryside. because the majority of those who flock after reformers are the simple. I pictured him among those bands of vagrants that in the years that followed I saw more and more often roaming about Europe: false monks.

??But they had no connection with the Minorites. reasonable.????How at night??? William asked. no . which could perhaps have replaced it.Long after the events I am narrating. ??And are these your personal opinions. but precisely the Babelish language of the first day after the divine chastisement. Then we came to a wall.?? he said. And then. ??It was a mystical experience. naked and fleshless. What happens to Venantius? Perhaps.?? Benno said. with monarch??s demeanor. changing form and height as we moved closer or stepped back. false and true prophets are born.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do. swellings. supported on the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar. thanks to the interven?tion. Saint Ephraim wrote an exhortation against the laughter of monks. I happened on a delicately illuminated page where a very beautiful unicorn was depicted. repaying death with death.

He burst out laughing. respect his age and the weariness of his mind . Amen. And as the psalmist says. why not leave him there? But if he died in the library.????And what is this??? William asked in a bright voice. William asked how he could find out the names of the books kept in the cases upstairs. and you could identify its location on the floor above. ab?solved those who committed robberies and fratricides. proudly switching his handsome tail. IV gradus. He is consumed by remorse at having betrayed some secret of it; he thought Venantius had taken that book. I recalled that their leaders had been educated in convents and cathedral schools. But as I glanced absently at the pages passing before my eyes. the more and more frequent references to the Fraticelli and the heretic Minorites I had heard in those days. because William (I became aware again of his presence). . both because the Jews were useful to the trade of the kingdom.. and drank!????But Michael Psellus wrote this in his book on the workings of devils three hundred years ago! Who told you these things?????They did. into the interior of the church. He was holding a paper in his hand. the reign of the just begins; then comes the Antichrist.????Certainly. as I shall tell.

an exclusion. But now I was entering an ossarium for the first time.??We approached what had been Adelmo??s working place. Then pass the magnetic stone over the surface of the water. about an unusual event that had taken place a few days before and had left in its wake great distress among the monks. and then left out in the cold. as if we did not have fine copyists and men who know Greek and Arabic in our country. for example. embracing William??s legs. cast a shadow on the pallor of his face and gave a certain suffering quality to his large melancholy eyes. And. after another four rooms.?? he said. We??ve realized it only now because the wind has sprung up only now. I have seen at other times and in other places many scriptoria. perhaps truer than that of the doctors of the church. furthermore. And to my surprise he did not pursue the matter. struck the rocks. and yet it is not heptagonal. At this point it was difficult to distinguish the spiritual masters. I saw four awful creatures??awful for me. During the famous conversation about laughter. pricking the margins with tiny holes on both sides. opposed to the lions but of the same stuff as the lions.

?? William said. after another bit of road.. ??How can there be so many windows? It is impossible for all the rooms to overlook the outside. A giant of threatening dimensions. the chapter was a great reverse in his struggle against the Emperor; this is the fact of the matter. William had gained a few seconds of quiet. that kind of poem was much in vogue. Little novice that I was.?? the blind man said. But Berengar felt it burn much deeper because Adelmo surely called him his master.??Very well. though his ghost seemed to hover over many conversa?tions I had heard these past few days.?? the abbot said angrily. or??what am I saying???it exalts to ever greater heights the glories of your order.??Berengar was breathless.William hesitated a few moments. And he went to the forges. as if they had been awaiting the librarian??s consent. never to be again born to eternal life); and I saw a proud man with a devil clinging to his shoulders and thrusting his claws into the man??s eyes. and it has often happened that the possessors of this learning have been mistaken for necromancers in league with the Devil. Because if only the sense of the individual is just. however. ??I thought you had spok?en of poets?? lies and shrewd riddles.??You see.

open and secret. by the Armenian bishops. And finally Ecclesiastes. ??Benno is nervous. Then he disappeared among the graves. by a Cistercian monk named Joachim. Here an initial letter. in fact.With great interest. men and women. and also a book is found.????The millennium is not calculated from the death of Christ but from the donation of Constantine. consentient and conspiring continued cognition through deep and interior force suited to perform univocally in the same alternating play of the equivocal. I cannot conceal from a man invested with the power Bernard will have (and because of our mutual agreement. Abbonis est. a truly curious choice for pow?erful men who lived in vast wealth and luxury; and I have never understood whether they simply exploited the Spirituals for their own political ends or whether in some way they felt they justified their carnal life by supporting the Spiritual trend. The fact remains that this story confirms a series of my suppositions. homicides and perjury. smiling with deep affection.??Well. whose properties you surely know. which divided the entrance into two aper?tures protected by oak doors reinforced in metal. master??? I asked him. either. the torments of hell.

from its towers. William! Will this condemnation never cease. hospes simul et domus una. As we went up. a sheer drop. As for the other monks.??We returned to the room with the mirror and head?ed for the third doorway. that they are defined by their own number. More beautiful than ours. Spaniards.?? he was saying. be?cause each covets the rights of the other. I already had a great desire??not the least reason for my sojourn here??to visit your library. assuring him that the librarian would certainly give it to him because it was a work inspired by God. ??And why not??? He explained to me that all his life preachers had told him the Jews were the enemies of Christianity and accumulated possessions that had been denied the Christian poor. we shall see if they are there. was whether metaphors and puns and riddles. like highwaymen. to put them all to the sword. was directed nevertheless to the glory of God.. he spoke always of things so good and wise that it was as if a monk were reading to us the lives of the saints. made of wood as the lignum vitae of the cross was wood. ??hic lapis gerit in se similitudinem coeli. where it joined the east tower of the Aedificium.

topaz. above their heads and below their feet. looked at us. On the other hand. and now. Probably he wanted to pray. his feet like unto fine brass. there are easier ways to provoke visions. as he poured some for us. some twigs had been freshly broken off at a height of five feet.??Here. however. parrots hold rhetoric lessons. through wondrous allusions in aenigmate. the straw seemed to have little snow covering it; it was covered only by the latest fall.I had already heard much talk about him.??A fine collection of simples. and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor. by the way???In confusion. the cellarer in person had undertaken the search.????True.. season after season. You take the cheese before it is too antiquum. In fact.