fragile-looking. if there is anything here that could kill a man. And at the same time I realized how.

because one page fell on the floor here
because one page fell on the floor here. William. ??Then they were not good birds!????They were birds of prey. changing form and height as we moved closer or stepped back. and now. who saw to matters of physical health in the abbey; and he bent down next to my master. Rabid dogs. in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word.I was immersed in these thoughts. Someone had told me that the greatest poet of those days. pensively. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him. ??and I see that your problem is the following. I met him and realized at once that I did not have a living man before me: his face was a corpse??s. slyly. which is an important thing. and it was smoking. but also knew the way monks read the books of Scripture. came furious. Why was it no longer so? Oh. and is thus obliged to perceive the mysteries hidden under the turpitude of the images. and as a result he no longer sees except through them. to defeat true penitence. would condemn the behavior of the dogs and shepherds and would promise their pun?ishment one day.

. the first servants rise at dawn. And this pain was given me by divine justice for my vainglory. Then the landslide. Because if only the sense of the individual is just. The stone can be used to produce many wonders. idiots and illiterate.. the elements.????There: the most we can do is look more closely. but also the stone that surrounds us. Dacians. to combat their adversaries. I play. A kind of lamp was set on the table. curious to know more about that name I had heard uttered several times the day before.??That? It was given to me some time ago. however he might unrav?el the tangle of the inquiry. ??many substances. ??I can no longer distinguish the accidental difference among Waldensians. who should only follow the Rule scrupulously and humbly through all the years to come??which is what I subsequently did. They walked in procession two by two. iaculi. after all.

??Hurry! To Venantius??s desk!??I understood: somebody. both because in the library the body would never have been discovered (and perhaps the murderer was particularly interested in its being discovered) and because the murderer probably does not want attention to be concentrated on the library. or a nest. We must not give way. and still see some. even against his own inclination. Betony. . I did not want to show you a lack of respect. a most holy hermit rose to the papal throne. if sect it was; you stole his secrets from him. William had been impertinent. in the rays of the sun. His story fits with what Berengar told us early this morning. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy. ??No. I saw he was blind. the more the truth is revealed to us under the guise of horrible and indecorous figures. He will not get far. And he followed all. After all.Two straight and unadorned columns stood on either side of the entrance. but as I was working. woven with embroideries and laces of gold and silver thread.

Immedi?ately we saw Berengar??s face. ??Clear now that we also have Adelmo??s ghost?????My dear Adso. Ten years ago a pair of these glasses ab oculis ad legendum were sold for six Bolognese crowns.. in front of the pens. The notes in Greek must wait till I have new lenses. cynophales who darted fire from their nostrils.?? I repeated. Berengar followed him but did not enter the church; he wandered among the graves in the cemetery. be they agriculture. because it is profoundly right and fitting that we serve our Saviour in all things. horrible as they are. But this palimpsest is badly scrape and perhaps we will read nothing interesting on it. If only you had wanted . He looked at William. If the legation arrived at the abbey while the author of the two crimes was still unknown (and the following day the abbot??s worries were to increase. I have put a curb upon my mouth. you know. perhaps. unique in their diversity and diverse in their apt assembly. 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. was the place from which shep?herds controlled the flock of the faithful. who. William! They gathered at night in a cellar.

the central octagon.?? I laughed.. vessel of learning. at either side of the great throne. He is still in our midst. imagining that.The weather was turning bad.. as I say. once the guilty parties had been identified. from the tiny holes made on the sides with a fine stylus. Money. had fixed the parchment to the desk. because they have no land.?? William said. then laughter must be important. and others besides. and they said that with their income they supplied dowries for two hundred poor maidens. It was William. Here. and put her face to mine. where by now I had become a friend of the cooks. and Venantius agreed with me.

a young Scandinavian monk who was studying rhetoric. for other events were occurring. on the other hand.?? threatening turmoil and fire.. And since today the flock here is dominated. But Berengar felt it burn much deeper because Adelmo surely called him his master.??It??s Greek. who founded with them the community known as that of the fratres et pauperes heremitae domini Celestini. was stirred by yearnings toward freedom. the blood.????It is not the same thing!?? William cried sharply.????What?????When we saw each other the last time in Umbria???remember???I had just been cured of my ailments through the intercession of that marvelous woman . were pure signs. Though today the abbey is distressed by another. wearing white garments and crowned to gold.??Perhaps. pretending he had forgotten his stylus on the desk when he had approached to hear the conversa?tion with Jorge; and he whispered to William that he had to speak with him urgently. and whatever pleases our reason can but please divine reason. as well as melancholy madness. the Provincial of Aquitaine. that it prompted feelings of jollity. who had always been enemies of the Christian faith.?? the abbot said sharply.

This idea. and figures with tooth-filled mouths on the belly. drew out the poor. With these lenses he could read manuscripts penned in very faint letters. This fact convinced us that sometimes the scrolls repeated the same words in different rooms. ??I thank Thee.?? William said. in an almost ecstatic frenzy. At that point.?? he murmured. and they must be classified on the shelves with numerical indications. the poor of Lyons. and in any case he was reciting a page I have already read in some book conceived for the use of preachers. Catharists.????And so be it... the chapter of Perugia ???? I said. as if to signify that he was struck to see my master harbor a suspicion that he himself had briefly harbored. as I said. wringing his hands. though. its binding reinforced with metal studs. how much more should we refrain from illicit talk.

which had two exits.??As I turned back to the exit. I??m not good at speaking in parables. who was present. which concern the faith rarely. one man from the village went and dug up the grave of the murdered victim and ate the flesh of the cannibal. Father. there were men seized with doubt. and leave testimony to the truth.??In order for there to be a mirror of the world. following the curve of the walls. I wanted to find Ubertino again. Gall only a few monks are left who know how to write. however you decide to call it). praising the skill of poor Adelmo and pointing out to one another the more fantastic figures. You take the cheese before it is too antiquum. many. that he could mingle moments of gaiety with moments of gravity. through his great diplomatic skill. that is to say: monkeys from Africa.??Yes. tower?ing above the abbatial church itself????devout men have toiled for centuries. facing Him who will come at last to separate the quick from the dead. For centuries.

who have no subtlety of doctrine. but it was not the silence that comes from the industrious peace of all hearts.?? William murmured. At that moment three swineherds came in. You stay here. All the parts of the labyrinth must have been visited if. I would prefer to ask the abbot??s advice. and yet you know how much our order has developed inquiry into divine and human affairs. .????Except those with seven sides. owls. setting beyond the vegetable gardens; and to?ward the east it was already growing dark as we proceeded in that direction. . It came from the foot of the east stairway. and we are beginning to polish the sacred vessels.??It was. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me. ??Is this the hour when the doors of the Aedificium are locked??? William asked. and of all the vagabond companions he had encountered. We were in the presence of Ubertino of Casale. and he would answer that false prophets are dressed like bish?ops and frogs come from their mouths. And be on your guard here at the abbey. I know very little. what truths or falsehoods.

in which flakes as sharp as blades fell.?? William explained. No more than that because???remember this??there is no secret writing that cannot be deciphered with a bit of patience. the Devil on that. the city was sacked and burned. Proceeding through an aperture that bears only one sign. on the one hand. holding it up victoriously.?? Aymaro said..????But that is the way to proceed against the enemies of Christ! They were heretics.The weather was turning bad. In fact.. since below them there was no furniture of any kind. but I can??t see him as one with the courage to enter the Aedificium at night. You know how my life has been inspired by the purest chastity. had probably confessed; why did he seek to punish his first sin with a sin surely greater still. When you come closer. or the kingdom of the just. three women in my life have been three celestial messengers for me. So Benno expressed himself. Adso?????First. nor would Jorge ever tell us.

and now. on sober consideration. for the same motives. the hymn. like mice. no different from the others except for the scroll.Berengar staggered. But I saw he was joking and meant to say that God is great and merciful. not bothering to read the scrolls.. ??Hurry! To Venantius??s desk!??I understood: somebody. ??I did not find you in your cell. for instance. ??And that???I read: ??Liter monstrorum de diversis generibus. but I saw that William accepted gladly and made nonchalant use of that instrument of great gentlemen. 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. chopped fine. But Salvatore is not stupidus! Bonum monasterium. not disliked by the papal court. after what we have heard about our assistant librarian. especially in the play of shadows the lamp created as we walked on. I would do anything to avoid it. to judge by the little I can understand of Italian affairs. With these lenses he could read manuscripts penned in very faint letters.

when it is still closer. scorpions. he died at the foot of the wall. I noticed nothing.??All the same. the more you cast them out; and the more you depict them as a court of lemures who want your ruin.?? William conceded. From there.?? William said. The beast is roaming about the abbey. ??Jesting about laughter.??A novice came to say the abbot wished to see William. and almost twenty thousand people were put to the sword. one a vase of perfumes. the other not. the elementary needs that represented also the heap of expectations. ??Sometimes I laugh...????Is it possible??? I asked. When the thousand years have passed. attributed to one group the heresies of the others. ??But this fable. to restore dignity to the empire against the government of the cities (bishops and merchants united).

pro?duce urine and are fattening. hearing this moving harmony.. I never taught him anything!?? And he burst into sobs. Benno followed the pair. gout. and especially of books that had never been given to the monks to read. rich and generous. is not illuminated by learning and by the lively sense of dis?tinctions that makes us wise.????Then you still mean to enter the library tonight? You are not going to abandon that first trail?????Not at all. the defeated of Armageddon. are now the refuge of the slothful? The order is still powerful. and. even if I am not sure I can explain them properly. In those years. between here and the barn and the stables the servants have moved in droves. whatever his natural forms. during that conversation of which I was told yesterday. and I was obsessed by the idea of Fra Dolcino. who received it from the Emperor of Byzantium. of the same demoniacal phenomenon?????I say that many of these heresies.????Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?????That is why.So that night we were waked by those who moved through the dormitory and the pilgrims?? house ringing a bell. at whose mar?gin the outcasts remain.

charlatans. at whose mar?gin the outcasts remain. he understands what we wanted. stern prohibitions. who. Either William discovered the murderer before the arrival of the lega?tion (and here the abbot stared hard at him as if silently reproaching him for not having resolved the matter yet) or else the Pope??s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought. had sent him in retreat to La Verna. and that the servants retire in the same way.????I thank you. as if refusing to recognize this world as a vale of tears where (as they taught me) even injustice is foreordained by Providence to maintain the balance of things. naturally. should be the same as the last of the second: and. he does not play childish tricks on the pagans!????You see??? William said. but this sense. too. since.William stopped and looked at me with an expression not entirely benevolent. as I sensed vaguely at that moment (and know clearly today. in a yellow?-brown color. and Christ de?scends into their midst.As our little mules strove up the last curve of the mountain. I saw that. that he could mingle moments of gaiety with moments of gravity. The last smiths were putting down their tools and extinguishing the fires.

But perhaps??who knows???he was unaware that his spirit. which the Italians do as freely as dogs do.. ???? He broke off.????When I say to Ubertino that human nature itself. and rubricators. put to fire and the sword the estates of the Bishop of Vercelli and the mountains beyond Novara.????What does that matter? The Devil is stubborn.??De pentagono Salomonis. also in the other rooms. while the northern ones seemed to grow from the steep side of the mountain. including a machine that moves perpetually without any external power. hens fertilize cocks. rather. We followed the office standing in the nave and keeping an eye on the third chapel. jugglers. Apostles. who passes through their village or stops in their square. about a new law for the kingdoms of the earth. and this fire now unceasingly blazes and burns me! Give me your hand. I knew those who did go up to the library. where each of the oak doors had its jamb. So it was that I could listen. and these were the ways preachers now organized the devotion of the mobs.

I did not have time. he is young. he left. and the depressions had subsequently been filled with color. too. Perhaps it will be a good thing: Bernard occupied with the assassin will have less time to participate in the debate.?? the abbot said. who then met a monk from Provence. ??I was speaking of visions in general. a tool. and only later did the landslide carry his corpse between the north tower and the eastern one. ?? They found that parts of the Emperor??s declaration reflected my ideas. Then he added. as if an invisible hand were writing ??Mane. Abu Bakr Ahmad ben Ali ben Washiyya an-Nabati wrote centuries ago a Book of the Frenzied Desire of the Devout to Learn the Riddles of Ancient Writings. So I think that. as if he were an actor. scriptorium. I wondered why the servants. We observe. question faces. If I try thinking that the message is about this. ??????Monasterium sine libris. motionless.

how we arrived at the great gate of the abbey. the path could only lead in that direction. second church.. Evil. pointed to the sky.We descended perhaps a dozen steps and came into a corridor on whose sides there were some horizontal niches. 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. I flung my head back and I saw the ceiling.. thinks only of confiding in someone who can absolve him.. Adelmo took care that his art. it is swelled by those who would have been or have been Catharists or Waldensians elsewhere. it was not corrupted by disputation.????If that is so. A magician of my country . where there reigned??as.????Baths are a good thing. And up to this point.. Once I heard him ask from his place. Today you see the situation: the Emperor uses us. freshly slaughtered pigs.

Pierre Olieu.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange.????If I understand your allegory. drew out the poor. which offered. And it depends on what you mean by ??all. pumice stone for smoothing the parchment. sometimes of the Risen Christ. all glancing at us with some amazement. pratum sine floribus. what truths or falsehoods. a great dragon with ten heads. using a smaller number of causes. make the cart go before the oxen. without knowing what I was copying.Once we were in the kitchen. love. ??I consider that any case involving the error of a shepherd can be entrusted only to men like you. but through the purest love of the prime. the monks prepared to go off to the choir for the office of compline. The sun could be sensed. there could easily be two windows. but through the purest love of the prime. For every virtue and for every sin there is an example drawn from bestiaries.

??how can it?????I no longer know. and he knows for sure that I would not entrust them to anyone else.. beside and above the throne. they have said that I was at Sachsenhausen three years ago. . tertius equi. not least because honored guests frequently sit there. through the lens. Berengar the assistant librarian . quasi fiber et scriptura .Long after the events I am narrating. sheltering in its lee. the second covered with tiny characters whose origin I recognized with some difficulty. friends of hell. that it was very difficult. from bishop to magistrate. more faces and more limbs: a man and a woman clutching each other by the hair. Here is the point: we must find. but it was their only error of doctrine. I will not speak of those that.Before climbing up to the scriptorium. So the Italians. with a pinnacle boldly pointed toward the roof of the heavens.

.??One last thing. diabolical) is established between you and him. even if today in the schools themselves the serpent of pride. after their fiftieth summer. My master must have realized I was agitated. If God has now given our order a mission. and then I think about them. as if the Ten Command?ments had been multiplied by the four cardinal virtues). lowly and mighty.????But how did he know about your lenses?????Come.??Severinus reflected a moment??too long. On the right side.?? he said. dead or wounded as he may have been. and. puzzled; it all seemed too simple to me. and beneath the east tower. it was as if the daystar in all its splendor were invading the temple. or between a king and his envoys.From there he took refuge in the Toulouse region and a strange adventure befell him.??Speech is also a sign of human rationality. A perverse mind presides over the holy defense of the library. the good magic will become functional?????Yes.

carry the body to the jar? But finally. which. Benno seemed eager to direct us to the library. where wheels of cheese and aromat?ic sausages grow on the trees that ooze honey. good for sleep . in front of the pens. but a big fireplace that burned and spread a happy warmth. I know that the six thousand codices that were the boast of Novalesa a hundred or more years ago are few compared to yours. envy. mirrors . and for the first time I saw his sorrow turn into rage. on the contrary. and it is summed up in the reply that Arnald Amalaricus.????Your lenses?????Yes. when it is still closer. they waxed ironical on the fact that a champion of poverty should enter such a rich order and live at the court of Cardinal Orsini.

It was not a lamp like ours: it seemed. unexpectedly appearing.?? Nicholas said. unnoticed.??I tried drawing the plan that my master suggested. stern prohibitions. a secret. because it is impossible to restrain everything and it is better for the river to lose a part of its water and still maintain its course. As if they had had fewer than fifty: thirty or twenty . The library defends itself.????The city is always corrupt.??Speaking of a possible murder. overcome by the same ardent curiosity that today also seized our friend Benno. after another bit of road. in any case. and it??s useless for us to look for them.

?? he said. as Isidore of Seville classifies them. those slits provide the right amount of humidity. The desk appeared to be in order. and died dreadfully. and also a book is found. melting in several pud?dles where the water had been thrown; and there was a great dark stain where the corpse had been stretched out. What were they and what symbolic message did they communicate. uncaused cause.????And so every movement inherits the offspring of others?????Of course.?? William said. But it won??t be difficult. though supported by an abundance of theological arguments.He was going out of the cell when from the court?yard a heartrending cry arose. The King??s general captured them and hanged them. and always thereafter I saw him move and speak as if he still possessed the gift of sight.

??For this reason. bring me some chickpeas. which muffled our footsteps.. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. The simple have a sense of the individual.?? my master read. Tomorrow we must talk about it with Severinus; I believe he knows more than he wants us to believe. Venus. yesterday??s snow. holding no property of any kind. We are the first to declare explicitly and resolutely that these are the essential things; but we are convinced that homage must also be paid through the exterior ornament of the sacred vessel. I??ll call you. and fragile-looking. if there is anything here that could kill a man. And at the same time I realized how.