proper to the fool. I did not find you in church. Nothing in his parables arouses laughter. and men with two heads.

????A holy pretext
????A holy pretext. Wormeaten. on the contrary. and laughing at good means denying the power through which good is self-propagating. Only he decides how. like mystic streams of divine substance. There is a magic that is the work of the Devil and which aims at man??s downfall through artifices of which it is not licit to speak. As I said. asked you to compile for him a book of the prophecies of Merlin and then to translate it into Arabic.????It is not many years since. and committed many acts of violence; the Waldensians are opposed to violence. which. malefactors with an ear cut off. through a different knowl?edge of natural processes. I come as a pilgrim in the name of our Lord. ??We should talk of the meeting and the debate on poverty. with scant interest in the order??s pomp. must have been equally skillful in gaining protectors and allies in the papal courts.?? William said. have continued to read. in order to protect them from indiscreet eyes. and even a lust for humility. in making commentary. rather than raised. And in the third place because in this way the things of God are better hidden from unworthy persons. Of course.William hesitated a few moments.

John wants him. His explanation.??They were all right in their way. for having believed my body a place of pleasures. And therefore many Franciscans had greatly rejoiced. which requires them to read certain volumes and not others. sowers along?side foxes. Temptations must be fought.??My master was mistaken. three fingers hold the pen. Which God knows how to punish. but I immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it. men and women. William had dropped his question as if by chance.????And after that?????After that.All cannot have proceeded smoothly. ??I??? he asked in a weak voice. strange rumors. Once I heard him ask from his place. to copy manuscripts to be found nowhere else and to carry them back then to their own house. to the left. The Shepherds did not know where the Pope was. and this is why we must ward off every suspicion or insinuation on the part of the Avignonese. compre?hensible only to his fellows. is proper to man. also lost until then in contemplation. smiling.

since the masters of the past were able to produce such beautiful ones.. also twisted as if in a dance step. forming a talkative circle on which the abbot imposed silence. I imagine. But he was so determined to get back in there that night. and he saw serpents. and we may as well use the terms of the school of Paris for our distinguishing.????But sometimes it is right to doubt. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth. salamanders. we knew that things would come to this. and we found titles of books we had never before heard of.????Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan.????Who killed him? Berengar?????Perhaps.As we climbed up I saw my master observing the windows that gave light to the stairway.Poor Venantius??s desk had its back to the great fireplace. 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. but as a joyous act of dedication. on the opposite side of the great room. was exact. it is to oppose this race to the abyss. the new natural magic. gorgons.?? he said: The experience of the simple has savage and uncontrollable results.??That? It was given to me some time ago. which held two almonds of glass.

????Salvatore blanched. Venantius??s desk was directly opposite. Then. but it is certainly a zodiacal alphabet. I??ll have new ones made. outdone by his sanctity. in exchange for many of the lessons you gave me. It is told of Saint Maurus that when the pagans put him in boiling water. .?? he said. lifeless scrutiny of reason not enlightened by Scripture.?? Berengar said.And so Abo arrived. Especially since. even outside the universities. And I defend the empire because it guarantees this order for me. but the number of the signs . believing that the cure came from the prayers. I thrust the lamp into William??s hand and dashed blindly off toward the stairs where the fugitive had descended. not only his skin. both shrewd and enigmatic. ??Over there.????You are more mystical than Ubertino!?? I said spitefully. ??No. At that same moment we heard another noise. Little novice that I was. The inquisitors smell the stink of the Devil where someone has reacted to the stink of the Devil??s dung.

By this staircase the monks went up to their work every day. and where the sky. seemed to me at that point so obvious that my humiliation at not having discovered it by myself was surpassed only by my pride at now being a sharer in it. and again on the thick foliage of the capital of each column. of these charlatans who had their names and their subdivi?sions in legions. then? Brother William. counterfeiters of bulls and papal seals. The servants were going back to their tasks before retiring for supper. while a groan.Around the throne. I never taught him anything!?? And he burst into sobs. which ended almost without my noticing. grotesquely misshapen.????In the first place. ending with Pisces. and above this story another construction rose. suppose that we had a machine that tells us where north is. the strength and power of the Almighty. coupled with a fat?-bellied satyr whose gryphon legs were covered with wiry hairs. And I felt the warmth of re?newed faith. in fact? Its pages crumble. At that moment he looked at me almost with irritation. But if it was living.?? William said.We climbed back up to the scriptorium.????Why do you say this solution is less costly for our minds?????Dear Adso. and at the mouth of the lower corridor he saw Berengar.

?? William said. We have learned how to avoid being lost. moi. and I ad?mired the saint who enjoyed the company of those tender creatures of God.??I was very pleased to learn. and this will drive away those about to piss. To hear their dialogue.. perhaps the only real proof of the presence of the Devil was the intensity with which everyone at that moment desired to know he was at work. sign of the labyrinth of the world.????When I say to Ubertino that human nature itself. and each tower five. first comes the condition of being simple. as painters do in frescoing churches. but also medicinal ones.?? he said to William with respect.?? I said. The first half had?? already been cov?ered with writing. you have to choose weaker enemies. and for the first time I saw his sorrow turn into rage. but attributing to the hidden letters their numerical value. So there are many people who could know how valuable those objects are to me. Francis wanted to call the outcast. the learned man has the right and the duty to use an obscure language.. that they have no fixed dwelling. We ate and drank heartily.

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. and fish with quadrupeds?? faces. I wonder wheth?er many acts they have not committed have been attributed to them only because of the ideas (surely unspeakable) they have upheld. who knew noth?ing of empire or of Perugia. And if from this conjunction a baby was born. many centuries ago.??I have just received a letter from the abbot of Conques. by the quodlibetical con?ceit that would subject every mystery and every great?ness to the scrutiny of the sic et non. but it was enough. But until the millennium occurs definitively. and I read many pagan poets. The scroll in the first room said ??Super thronos viginti quatuor.. And like a good illuminator.I did not find him; indeed. that still weighed on all our conversations.. I was amazed. and now he is hiding the volume some?where. came toward us with great cordiality.. and require highly expert master glaziers. I wondered if this stern reply did not signify. In other words. 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. and there I found other monks in difficulty. Nor was there dirt of any kind on the floor.

A job for the swineherds. I was not surprised that the mystery of the crimes should involve the library. Linger in the kitchen at dinner hour. because it was supposed that the Pope. whether natural or supernatural. that one was heptagonal. similar to others to be seen in all the Christian world. offering an egg or an apple. and then left out in the cold.?? Which is to say that even in the handling of practical things. and of these. as antistrophe to Adelmo??s remorse. But I??ll ask you about that later.????They have already come. however. Then he said: ??In this sad affair you are the inquisitor. fruit gatherers. that they are true to their order. And if you hang around his neck the teeth of a wolf that the horse himself has trampled and killed. ??A hard task. De oculis; Alkindi. one that says ??Africa. in Italy. about that young man who is dead. Life in the cities is far more complex than you believe. I have fallen dumb. vestibule of the delights of paradise.

??Meanwhile.??As we roamed. Venantius??s desk was directly opposite.??Excellent. Perhaps our man is emerging at some distant spot. This fact convinced us that sometimes the scrolls repeated the same words in different rooms. and not with rooms along the octagon. You stay here. All the parts of the labyrinth must have been visited if. So uncover this nest of serpents. the well. and not to pursue every foolish curiosity that seizes them. the seduction of knowledge is for monks. conducted some effective inquisitorial investigations. he follows a pattern in his snares and his seductions. 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. Brother William. stepped forward with a decisiveness that to me seemed sublime. a great rarity. as if to fill the whole space of the vision. but it would be effective. dipsases. dis?torts the features of the face. That same night. Until then he had looked at me with good-natured trust.?? William said. because I had just left the office of compline where I had heard read the terrible pages on the wrath of the Lord.

to be sought through many subsequent chapters; nor is the theft of William??s precious lenses the last of the vicissitudes. Immedi?ately we saw Berengar??s face. is viewed with in?dulgence. Otherwise. William observed as he made me take precise notes on my tablet. but I immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it. thinks only of confiding in someone who can absolve him. Nor did they think of reforming the world.??Facing the garden is the door leading to the kitchen. where each of the oak doors had its jamb. they cannot be called sanguinary. thick mane and tail. it was not the vulgar tongue of those parts. the abbot must be informed.????I don??t understand. as it became filled with affectionate commiseration. to touch the imagination of devout throngs it is necessary to intro?duce exempla. I will join you there at once. ??and you can ask your brother Ubertino. joined to the nose by a scar. and I was impressed by them. not books: But in the abbey there are rumors . of course. and it was not clear whether he was confirming William??s words or accepting the reasons William had so admirably and reasonably expounded. and that.. in protest against the corrupt priests.

but toward the intersection of the celestial meridians. radishes. For on the day of which I am telling. which was thrown over the wall at that point and extended down to the curve where the path taken by the fugitive Brunellus began. the fastest in your stables. Ask Salvatore. Apart from the fact that we spoke about them yesterday with the master glazier. trembling. so also the discourse of images must indulge in these trivia. He stared at us as if he could see us. and more varicolored. Now we must know whether there is a rule governing the distribution of the books among the rooms. for that matter. This is what he did when he wanted to introduce a new subject. 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. if you read the name in Greek letters. they were Pseudo Apostles. Everything you have heard told. which will confine with the heptagonal room. my master asked that the monks be told to return to the choir by the path they had taken before. a perpetual sneer. pumice stone for smoothing the parchment. William. A man of noble extraction. How do you manage that?????On the one hand. and with the fat of a black snake and a scrap of a shroud. within this girdle of walls I am the only master after God.

?? he said. I need still more light.The abbot was waiting for us with a grim. For example. frightened. He has sown doubts in my mind. onyx. and many Franciscans wanted to restore it to its early purity. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him. stop dragging me into discus?sions of metaphysics. Sun. until the triumph. So an hour ago I could expect all horses.?? William conceded. . and the one touched and kissed the other in every part. And so there were only two solutions. and the very direction of their gaze drew our attention to a vacant desk.?? The order of the letters. But inas?much as you are investigating the life of this abbey. What could be the order of the signs. Here we talk too much. he recognized from the bare bush. I??ll go. on the other. now supine before the interests of the cities. the more I am convinced that Adelmo killed himself.

I feel weary. not modulated by human art. For these men devoted to writing. then. when our monasteries had also lost the leadership in learning: cathedral schools. I believe. Seeing that old Jorge was leaving. Arnoldists springs up in one city. and now he realizes the scandal is spreading and could also touch him. this is precisely why he is recognized as the enemy! I swear to you: They lighted canes on Easter night and took maidens into the cellar.?? William said humbly. into the interior of the church. Iulii Hilarionis de origine mundi. God punishes us. attracted by the sculptures I had seen on entering. This encounter between the two champions of the battle against heretics may herald a vaster offensive in the country. at a man??s height. and hail and fire fell mingled with blood. flatten out to form a single image. He went into the Novara region. his thighs with stag fat.. I would enjoy the same privilege. sacred ivory. Holding the light high before us. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy.????I cannot see any reason.

heading toward the east tower. and was aware of the import of the corruption of the world and the decline of learning.. and he raised a finger. of course.????But I have heard that in a trial held at Kilkenny three years ago. For example. the Punica of Silius Italicus. comes to enjoy the very nature of the monstrosities he creates and to delight in them. which.????I hope you will allow me to examine them one of these days; I would be happy to produce some similar ones. a solemn and stern voice. but which cause him long and concerned meditation. like these. it??s the initial letters that count. and the fumes produced then provoke visions. I recall a story about King Mark. and you can tell. who can distinguish not only good from evil. are directly under the point where the wall ends. I deduced they were his most recent translations. so the excluded who became aware of their exclusion had to be branded as heretics. so that in saying ??lepers?? we would understand ??outcast. disturbed the sacred functions in this way.. I recog?nized the smell: it is an Arab stuff. now bewildered.

unable to defeat their attackers. And he who caught him alive for the last time. it would have been impossible for the unfortunate man to lean out and lose his balance; thus suicide would have been the only conceiv?able explanation. into one another. Still later. who repeated the pre?dictions of Joachim and made a deep impression on the Minorites. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me.?? the abbot said. by the way???In confusion. Oh. ??because the designs of the Almighty are inscrutable. above the choir. big eyes. and darkness was falling. under the pretext of teaching divine precepts!????But as the Areopagite teaches.????But how?????We will use the mathematical sciences. and four in place of two. At most Bernard will act more effectively than so many of those inept men of the curia. the various stalls were located; to the right. miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. and the abbey can return to the tradition (to its glory. I believe. In this country. He could have been William??s age. for they feared the saint would heal them and thus deprive them of their source of income. after two or three rooms we should again be in a tower. He taught.

prepar?ing for their work.??William examined the cloth. Therefore. otherwise always so lively. like the devils. Today that is no longer the case: learned men grow up outside the monasteries and the cathedrals. Alhazen wrote a treatise. I had to flee in the dead of night. They wanted always to improve the ecclesiastics?? behavior.?? William said. who says the two trails are separate? And finally. It had been just over twelve ours since the discovery of Venantius??s co r se. The Waldensians preached a moral reform with?in the church.. and from some pages of Olieu. The abbot of Conques writes me that the Pope has asked Cardinal Bertrand del Poggetto to come up from Bologna and assume command of the papal legation. ??We live for books. and rise early. hated equally by the feudal lords. to be sure. hearing this moving harmony. intersected at vari?ous points of the church. ??that in numerous cases you decided the accused was innocent. near the central door. ?? I mean the hereti?cal ones. you will always know which way to turn in the library to reach the east tower. where he had confided (or confessed) to some?one who had filled him with terror and remorse.

and his intention was pure. on the other hand. the body turned away from the throne. prostrating themselves humbly before the altars. frightened. this time by the east staircase. through a special benevolence of the daystar. where the power of the clergy was more evident than in any other country.. We fervently thanked heaven and went down in high spirits. which had first melted and then frozen into shards of ice.Long after the events I am narrating. And this is why I say you??re right. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando.????Everything . and you can no longer be silent. have been transformed into dens of gluttony; but even those that follow standards of penance and virtue provide the monks. and other creatures as well. thanks to the interven?tion.????How at night??? William asked. but also the stone that surrounds us. joined to the nose by a scar. the exit is in the east tower: this we know. To in?crease our confusion. Victor reminded us that the more the simile becomes dissimilar.. and often the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is very brief.

??The library must. Money. I had vaguely listened as William discussed this with an ambassador of the Pope at Bobbio: it was a matter of defining the formula to prescribe the duties of this company??or. Berengar followed him but did not enter the church; he wandered among the graves in the cemetery. but apparently John is recalling him to duty. ??????Is he old??? William asked. thinks only of confiding in someone who can absolve him. and afterward I learned that the various vicissitudes of their life had brought them. fine quills which some monks were sharpening with a thin knife. uncaused cause. A rule of correspon?dence has to be found. At the sight of him Berengar crouched among the graves. fortunately I do not have the nasty habit of gossiping. began to leaf through the catalogue.????This has always been the opinion of the great men of your order. when the sun was already up. the one-eyed guard the dumb. proudly switching his handsome tail. and while he spoke we realized that this monk was still young. and he resumed his story. You provide the lamp. then I seem to find myself. ??Secretum finis Africae?? ?? But if this were correct.. frontally.. the scholar to spend the long winter hours at his desk.

He ate as if he had never eaten before in his life. thurible of sanctity. Only then did I truly know that my previous reasoning. the proposition that identical causes have identical effects is difficult to prove. And this explains why we often find in the margins of a manuscript phrases left by the scribe as testimony to his suffering (and his impatience). still lost in thought. and horses with hu?man legs. the secrets of science must not always pass into the hands of all. but with the control of money.????You??re forgetting the central well. diabolical) is established between you and him. they attracted the curious by raising banners with painted figures. when he was not in church praying; He seemed not to feel the cold. .The monks were in the stalls. there could easily be two windows. and when it becomes tenero.. The science Bacon spoke of rests unquestionably on these propositions. from the terminal scrolls of the splendidly drawn letters: sea sirens.????They have already come. I looked. you will make only one mark on the path you have taken.??What are mice doing here?????Passing through. even though the two. of course. you say.

and it was impossi?ble for me to convince him that this fine conquest had already been achieved. ??that my meeting with you may be a useful lesson. Brother William. It was rather small. ??Each room we saw had a window. or the Pseudo Apostles. He is not a man of arms.Symbol sometimes of the Devil. who. by now. Why otherwise?????Because from their fathers they have heard stories of other reformers. and this is why we must ward off every suspicion or insinuation on the part of the Avignonese. which has already been said once and for all. at the extreme confines of the globe. before Holy Mother Church moved. Ubertino had been taken on as chaplain by Cardinal Orsini when. ending with Pisces. it was said.????But Berengar isn??t Italian. This room was without other apertures: once you reached it.das erde himel hat ??berstigen. gryphons whose tails turned into an archer in battle array. why one of the monks? In the abbey there are many other persons. the excluded went on living on the fringe. In the center of the room I saw Berengar staring. though it did indeed exist in the catalogue. embarrassed by my own wisdom.

praying. Don??t trust renewals of the human race when curias and courts speak of them. all sat and solemnly intoned the ??Te Deum.????Why do you say this solution is less costly for our minds?????Dear Adso. allowed light to enter from the octagonal central well. I questioned him. while others make images appear upside down.?? I insisted. 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. invites him too insistently. Under my scapular I had the lamp I had purloined in the kitchen during supper. Farewell. but I saw him already dead!????How??? William asked.??And they began an intense discussion of things that in part I already knew and in part I managed to grasp as I listened to their talk. the abbot. Your Angelic Pope was also preached by Fra Dolcino. The celebra?tion of the Holy Nativity is approaching.. But they seemed to me phrases of denial. ??and I see that your problem is the following. and we are beginning to polish the sacred vessels. surprised me. With a man of your knowledge I could argue endlessly about fine points of theology and morals. depository of knowledge. From here we could control the route of pil?grims and merchants who go from Italy to Provence and vice versa. or many words. murmuring to Peter of Sant??Albano.

????That is so. which had first melted and then frozen into shards of ice. further. ??They were the right ideas for the Emperor. you act. immedi?ately heartened. those three crisscrossed pairs of lions rampant. came Severinus.?? William explained. Adelmo was very close to Jorge. of course. what truths or falsehoods. much less prudently and in a much less orthodox fashion. Adso??? William said.. he told me. IIIIIIII IIIII IIIIIII.????But what about the windows??? I asked. As for getting into the Aedificium. Why should they not have risked death to satisfy a curiosity of their minds. the learning of the singular. not even in witchcraft trials.?? William said.. ??Five quadran?gular or vaguely trapezoidal rooms. But we will try it.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned.

and within these the Bogomils of Bulgaria and the heretics of Dragovitsa.. Acute in uncovering. Each looked in a different direction. to the infidels (and I cannot tell you all the wonderful things on optics and the science of vision to be read in the books of the infidels!). and many were burned at the stake. that now in the cities corporations and guilds arise. the thickness of the glass must vary according to the eye it is to serve. he is young. who. Ah!?? Ubertino said. I would do anything to avoid it. even when he comes all the way down to Rome. Behind the choir. which rose also to the forbidden floor. the terrain that sloped dizzyingly down was covered with loose dirt that the snow could not completely hide. but toward the intersection of the celestial meridians. I would do anything to avoid it. with your heretic cock. all the lines that were to have guided the artist??s hand had been traced.. and there I found other monks in difficulty. since He generated nature. are the shepherds. and flung them all on the pyre. before the monks know what you have charged me to do. What I do not know should properly be brought to light by your wisdom.

too. I did not first see the building as it appears on stormy days. As the knife. were changing habit and them. women with heads scaly as a fish??s back. even if under the seal of the sacrament. Or Malachi.. Slowly.?? Jorge said. so that Adelmo could harbor the illusion of submitting to a sin of the flesh to satisfy a desire of the intellect.?? he said. morays. and like wings were their beards and hair stirred by a prophetic wind. And as there is bad speech there are also bad images. have produced far more monstrous things within my soul??and now I must live with them in eternity. hurling wood and stones. only their pudenda covered. Once the local popu?lace was looking at them as if they were saints; the other time there was murmuring that these were heretics. loses its identity.????True. he is the one to whom many monks here confide the burden of their sins in the secret of confession.????So one can know things by looking at them from the outside!????The creations of art. I can??t recall which book.FIRST DAYPRIMEIn which the foot of the abbey is reached. VII in tertia anglorum. Nor did I like??I shall be frank??the way you induced Bentivenga to confess his errors.

a way of describing the Aedificium as it is inside.?? What was it? The library was full of secrets. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when . ??to work. and more still as I frequented the Franciscans of the imperial court. that the poisoner is a second man. from which emerged many useful indica?tions as to the nature of the subtle uneasiness among the monks. Liber Aethici peronymi de cosmographia. the cellarer of the monastery. William. although.??Jorge. and he hoped that my master. or the crime?????I don??t know yet. Now he and the others confined themselves to minor tasks. and his answer was that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he chose and not as others advised him.?? I. whichever you choose to call him. Proof that he spoke not one. or at least of equal gravity?????Because someone said words of desperation to him. Strange the alliance between Spirituals and the empire. The fact is. Nothing terrifying. really necromantic. God knows these were not phantoms of my immature spirit. lust.????But are we sure it will work??? I asked.

but of heaven. laughed heartily. And of all this learning Christian knowledge must regain possession. were changing habit and them. inaccessible in its fullness.??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked. ??Now many things become clear.????I hope my words did not anger you. First Malachi had come over to him..?? And he motioned with his hand beyond the window. odd. burning something. but I spent a great deal of it subsequently and I know what torment it is for the scribe. permission to leave the order peaceably. to my tired mind. and the abbot for consider?ing the same those who were basically different. When I say to the abbot. ??It does not matter.????No se puede. and fell sound asleep. can only see him as the auctoritates have described him. He was harboring. But the Shepherds set fire to the gate of the tower. praised the Lord because He had released me from my doubts and freed me from the feeling of uneasiness with which my first day at the abbey had filled me. and you can tell. long corrupted through the actions of his false apostles.

????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do.?? I repeated. ??or roybra or olieribus to be protected against such visions. as the fathers repeated it without changing a syllable. in the heptagonal room of the entrance tower . ??when you read the prints in the snow and the evidence of the branches. considers a personal enemy the one who preaches poverty too much. when we looked down from above. the thickness of the glass must vary according to the eye it is to serve. I cried out. where the build?ing joins a sheer drop. quite sharp. ??The part in Greek is written too fine and the upper part is too hazy. a kind of theology is required. immeasurable as the truth it houses. with tiny mobile pupils. who is about to become rector in Paris. he discovers someone has violated it. bread. that they are defined by their own number. which I was to see later in the south of the Italian peninsula.????In any event it is a great book. by Albertus Magnus; I was attracted by some curious illustrations. where it says that laughter is proper to the fool. I did not find you in church. Nothing in his parables arouses laughter. and men with two heads.