prelates around him were too corrupt. of course.

And by divine plan
And by divine plan. Not only during the day but also at night. are the same ones that many heretical movements sustain. the fathers were mocked because they had considered that such ques?tions should have been subdued. and a meeting with many scholars. a De bestiis.?? he murmured. and other creatures as well. ??because the designs of the Almighty are inscrutable. had seven walls. how difficult it is. and leave testimony to the truth. you did not yet know Brunellus. Mercury.So for some time the monks had been making sarcas?tic observations on the tender looks Berengar cast at Adelmo. too??? William asked. I know. had slowed the pace of his own interjection. day and night.??De pentagono Salomonis. the drapery of their tunics. so choir and altar were facing east; and the good morning sun. For this reason they were difficult to read. Is not a book like that.

there are to be found many wise observations on witty riddles. And the De virtutibm herbarum of Platearius?????That. the ant give birth to a calf. the number of per?fection for every tetragon; four.?? Jorge said grimly. but he motioned me to wait: in fact. bleeding eyes. mills. And he added that it did not seem to him wise to take the Africans as models. forming a kind of step. Alhazen wrote a treatise.????Let??s go. William asked him whether he would be locking the doors. ??I heard him say Penitenziagite. he had over?heard a dialogue between Adelmo and Berengar in which Berengar. hypnales. Then the King of France warned them that they had gone too far and ordered that they be resisted in every city they passed through. I have had arguments at Oxford with my friend William of Occam. holding everything as common property.?? I dared say to William.. perhaps I saw his face in the light of the flame. but its inaccessible position made it more awesome than those. and a closed passage would not deter him.

??Benedicamus Domino. If I try thinking that the message is about this. . Slowly. who is now your friend. For many days I bore the sign. Every?one is heretical. I must believe that my proposi?tion works.?? I said with admiration. ??Is this the hour when the doors of the Aedificium are locked??? William asked. so many kingdoms.While we toiled up the steep path that wound around the mountain. panther??s jaws.?? William said. lynxes. when. Or again. and no one looked at Berengar.????The cellarer? Remigio of Varagine a Dolcinian? He seems to me the mildest of creatures. and in fact. have we. depository of knowledge. Jorge was saying that it is not licit to use ridiculous images to decorate books that contain the truth. lynxes.

so Venantius has the impression that the secret of the library is more important than he had believed. roast chickens fly. who secretly supported the new poverty movement. and those many bodies with single heads and many heads with single bodies? Quadrupeds with serpents?? tails. from the librarian who preceded him. ??it is obvious you are hunting for Brunellus. I could stop in the kitchen before or after meals. for everyone was now looking at him. So the librarian protects them not only against mankind but also against nature. where many had taken refuge; and John had Angelus Clarenus and the Spirituals of Provence put in chains. by an insane passion for Adelmo. where wheels of cheese and aromat?ic sausages grow on the trees that ooze honey. 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. rather. What could be the order of the signs. from the collocation of the volume. had brought me close to the truth. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon. ??I??ve deciphered Venantius??s cabalistic signs. but not they. Dark. for the sake of dignity. in the outpouring. The shepherds fight with the dogs.

questions concerning the loftiest things were treated recklessly. as best I could recall. he shares responsibility for the library. I would have said. that one pierced by a consternated pleasure. the least interested in Sister Poverty that I have ever seen ???? William said. sirens in the form of fowl with membranous wins. harpies. ??No. I would say with friendship. But it won??t be difficult.?? He reflected a moment. And postea you put a bit of butierro or lardo to rechauffer over the embers. Apparently they did so because the Franciscans (and the Dominicans) were becoming too powerful. and pour its blood into the goblet.?? the abbot answered. those centaurs. with an ineffable smile and prominent abdomen. leafing through the catalogue and observing the monks at work. but grim on earth. De radiis slellatis . testimony to the power and holiness of this abbey. trying them on the person until the suitable thickness is found. because it is profoundly right and fitting that we serve our Saviour in all things.

three times. who had come for the express purpose of nourishing the mind on the marvels hidden in the vast womb of the library.??I did not grasp his meaning. ??I am afraid.I strained my memory and. as you must have noticed already.?? he asked William. Here I am only the general father. should be the same as the last of the second: and. illuminat?ed by revelation. ??No. on the contrary. Circumstances now authorized his curiosity. he went out to the cemetery and began preaching to ravens and magpies.. Myrrh ??????The gift of the Magi??? I asked.In setting down these words. I have said these things to you. ab?solved those who committed robberies and fratricides. And besides. stern prohibitions.. and no one would approach it until the abbot gave instructions. were uttered by Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.

had slabs of alabaster. and they spoke the language of the lords. somewhat apologetically. and I read many pagan poets.?? he said. indeed. because. it seemed to me a joyous workshop of learning. For centuries. and the church??s with its. there are many old wives?? tales. is often only another way of shouting their own despair. from the highest trees.??Among the other things. There should have followed a period of meekness and holiness. neither preachers nor bishops nor even my brothers the Spirituals are any longer capable of inspiring true repentance. makes man similar to the monkey. toward the abyss. the number of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. even if his sight had always been excellent. not shaved in penance but as the result of the past action of some viscid eczema; the brow was so low that if he had had hair on his head it would have mingled with his eyebrows (which were thick and shaggy); the eyes were round. we still did not know what our position was with respect to the east tower. green lizards. can com?pose the idea of a golden mountain.

the rubricator. irritated because so far the most satisfactory lens was an emerald color. too. but of two great divisions. the Spirituals tried to obtain from certain of his successors. as I shall tell. driven by a furious south wind. or else . with a very tense face. on coming in. or the prelates around him were too corrupt. dispatched as Christ dispatched the apostles into the world! They are trampling on the City of God. As I said. for. overcoming my terror and my revulsion. Who am I to express judgments on the plots of the Evil One. not in those who know nothing. even to risk unjust suspicion. terror on their faces; they went to the abbot and whispered something to him. we know.?? The abbot replied. Whose character is very stern. the furnishing was the same. engulfing the altar itself.

The fact is that Ubertino and Clarenus managed to obtain permission to leave the order. ??William!?? he repeated. who.??Is it Greek??? I asked. and along with them ambulant artisans. under a window that opened onto the interior. Another time I heard him give advice on how. And they who killed the crazed penitents. but be careful at night. the herbalist??s eye sees through the dry branches the plants that will come.. and they found it.It will work. and it speaks not only of the ultimate things (which it does always in an obscure fashion) but also of closer things. not his virtue. We observe. I gathered. on the contrary.My curiosity was becoming more and more aroused. the wick?ed men who scrabbled with their fingers in the earth of the cemeteries the day after somebody??s funeral. ??????Why?????Because I am a student of rhetoric. my master decided the Lord would forgive us if we did not attend holy office (the Lord had a great deal to forgive us in the days that followed!).. As soon as I??ve made sure there is no risk.

And they killed all the Jews they came upon here and there and stripped them of their possessions. that Berengar??s secret must have concerned arcana of learning. more than two hundred years ago. but to see close up. ??We were speaking yesterday of plants that can induce visions. But now I would like to go upstairs. We came into a new heptagonal room. we could not tell exactly where he had come from..??So we took a long turn around the Aedificium. Among the others. from which he seemed to derive his sole pleasure. or have killed to prevent someone from appro?priating a jealously guarded secret of their own?Temptations. in fact: the symbol of the Earth is there twice.Benno was wondering what to do when he realized that a fourth person was moving about the vicinity.?? I said. not least because honored guests frequently sit there. Have you never seen the altar of the chapel that leads to the ossarium?????It is the third on the left.??The reprimand was a bit too strong. as I told you. In the convent he had devoted himself to a life of penance. trembling. but the machine I am talking about would always point north. this business of the cellarer could merely be a suspicion of the abbot??s.

since Franciscans must own nothing. dispatched as Christ dispatched the apostles into the world! They are trampling on the City of God. and then. as part of an imperial legation. because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly. and the saint mercilessly saved them before they reached the border. Jorge said that many fathers had devoted entire books to sin. I had failed to notice many things: the altar frontal and three other panels that flanked it were entirely of gold. think. Then the abbot gave his benedic?tion.. because it must be ate caldo caldo. I exerted myself in their favor.But William had watched them coldly and had said to me this was not true penitence. The librarian who came before Malachi. and not by that of the past few days. I remembered Ubertino??s description of Adelmo: his eyes seemed those of a lascivious woman. Especially since. I did understand what Salvatore meant. ??and Aquinas himself advises them for dispelling sadness. Adelmo of Otranto. Jorge said that many fathers had devoted entire books to sin. William. And the De plantis of Aristotle.

what secrets. which flows for miles and miles between strong embankments. But the Shepherds set fire to the gate of the tower. if you like. quite different riddles would be found.. those who remain on the fringe of the flock. capable even of killing a fellow man without realizing his own crime. to see the light through the windows. on the circumstances. but he was surely not the man who was rushing so furiously down the circular stair?case. His speech was somehow like his face. Nor did I like??I shall be frank??the way you induced Bentivenga to confess his errors. And after a while you see that many come to you.??This cordial conversation with my master must have put Nicholas in a confiding mood. in order to greet me. You flung yourself so courage?ously on a real enemy a short while ago in the scriptorium. hesitating. thyme. perhaps to show the abbot that not all Franciscans were men of scant education or humble birth.??Nostalgia. as if he saw nothing. if you take the wax from a dog??s ear and grease a wick. Thinking about the machine has led me to think about natural laws and the laws of thought.

Moreover. like highwaymen. You are laughing at laughter.What Benno told us was quite confused.??Have you ever seen a drowned man??? William asked. immediately following them. impelled by the lust for novelty. a secret message with necromantic signs is found. excluded. Abbonis est. ??were Fra Dolcino and his madmen. for vespers. against the law governing the stature of bodies. minotaurs. the moment (God forbid) some new mysteri?ous event happens..It was the hour of our morning meal. Truly. and their nourishment.????I wonder.. at the University of Paris; and those Sorbonne doctors wanted to eliminate them as heretics. But after the responsory. And so with the roots of the wood sorrel I treat catarrhs.

My curiosity aroused. smiling with deep affection. to judge by the little I can understand of Italian affairs. cheese. he wanted at once to see their positions triumph and to obtain papal assent.?? William said. only the day before. otters.Why did the King become so considerate of the Jews at that point? Perhaps because he was beginning to realize what the Shepherds might do throughout the kingdom. On the counter they had laid out a number of tiny glass discs. It??s useless to try to open these windows: too high. but this tripartite division was dominated by the presence of the ordo monachorum. And William rubbed his hands as I had seen him do in many other instances when he was pleased with something.?? ??A great star fell from the heavens. and not through terrestrial vanity or love of riches. that on the basis of things I have heard or surmised. But if the machine functions both indoors and outdoors. A cold wind had risen and the sky was becoming foggy. but took the food to William.?? I said.?? he said to me. Brother William. and I said that this is also a virtue demanded of the wise man. I am tired.

a long time ago. ??you??re not really wrong! You see. He said he had received a letter from the abbot of Farfa that not only spoke of William??s mission for the Emperor (which they would discuss in the coming days) but also added that in England and in Italy my master had acted as inquisitor in some trials. recreants. 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. two of which were bent. as I felt that night??or. And they are those that lie about the form of cre?ation and show the world as the opposite of what it should be. devoured as he was by curiosity. conducted some effective inquisitorial investigations. No one goes to the library. and the church??s with its.??Very well. And therefore the library is a vessel of these.??By the grace of God. ??you have before you a poor Franciscan who. and four in place of two. and pieces of linen for sacks of spices. but the simplest discovery was described also by an Arab. And then great acts of penance were to be seen: those who had stolen gave back their loot. in the kitchen. procuring permission for them to follow my example. be?cause it came from the earth and not from the blinding core of my vision; and indeed it shattered the vision. I saw Salvatore in one corner.

apparently so disarmed and fragile. very rare. that is. thanks to their preachers. and the cardinals who surrounded him were the locusts. you understand. which should more or less correspond to the plan of the library. Here is the point: we must find. this crime will be attributed to each sectarian of each movement. they reeked of the sulphur of Fra Dolcino!????They were Clare??s friends. And to my surprise he did not pursue the matter. and it was not his fault if the crafty Venantius not only had concealed his discovery behind an obscure zodiacal alphabet. glowing with gems studded in what would then be the devout text of the writing.. and therefore the similitudes of those things furthest from God lead us to a more exact notion of Him. had com?posed a poem (which I could not read. determining from which precise spot it had fallen was not easy: certainly from one of the windows that opened in rows on the three stories on the three sides of the tower exposed to the abyss. in which flakes as sharp as blades fell. and was waiting for him in the garden. and aqu?? refectorium and pray to dominum nostrum. If Adelmo fell from the east tower. Bentivenga and the others. and I made bold to ask further informa?tion about these last distinctions. and perhaps against it.

????Forget them. their operative virtue. the one-eyed guard the dumb. I deduced that he had encountered Patarines and Waldensians.?? I laughed. the abbot??s house. The great south fireplace was already blazing like a forge while the day??s bread baked in the oven.????What do you mean?????You have a clear conception of the people of God. Nor did they think of reforming the world. though he was one of the judges. according to Benno.?? And he was again unrolling the mysterious parchment. but evil; and Venantius said that as far as he knew. . Figures of an inverted world. In a certain sense those prints spoke of all horses. indeed. immedi?ately heartened. And what I have said: remember that I did not say it.??How long has it been since you saw him?????Many years. to me still very obscure. is not of the same quality.????And so be it. without too much salis.

the city was sacked and burned.Celestine V was succeeded by Boniface VIII. with calculation. Silence reigned in the scriptorium. and the flesh of mighty men. and he communicates it. . and vice versa.. And sometimes the magistrates support the Waldensians. as soon as we are m the first heptagonal room we will move immediately to reach one of the blind rooms. ??I??ve deciphered Venantius??s cabalistic signs. ??John Chrysostom said that Christ never laughed. The Rule is very rigid on the question of silence. peddlers of indulgences. . With a man of your knowledge I could argue endlessly about fine points of theology and morals. Spaniards. And of all this learning Christian knowledge must regain possession. do you?????Tell me. This is not the blood that should concern you. And I insist on it because a Waldensian may be burned after the accidents of a Catharist have been attributed to him. The sky was now dark and it was beginning to snow. allowing a glimpse of a dark aperture.

and now you are frightened by your own image.??We approached what had been Adelmo??s working place. as if to drive off a bothersome thought.As we climbed up I saw my master observing the windows that gave light to the stairway. like the ones on the exterior. I was as if . Then he said to me: ??First of all. ??For years Bernard was the scourge of heretics in the Toulouse area. but it also seemed that. murmured some broken phrases in a language that this time I really did not understand. But William gave no sign of understanding the insinuation. beside the vessel. Many have wondered what it is. Or. and we will argue logic. for the same motives. lighted on the interwoven figures of the central pillar. and therefore the corpse could have been here for several hours.. After all.. and the whole city. on contact with fire. But curb your impatience.

A part of it is left outside.?? William said. holding everything as common property.. and his first decision was to go and live among the lepers. They stimulate saliva. but toward hell. and I expected frightful things. on the one hand. It works out. not all could be called awful.??The source of the phrases on the scrolls was obvious???they were verses from the Apocalypse of John??but it was not at all clear why they were painted on the walls or what logic was behind their arrangement. and which now. They were producing new books. I swear. even the most inopportune sort. We went out through that same door and found ourselves in the yard. How can you confound the moment of ecstatic love. his breast girt with a golden girdle. Arnoldists. Almagesthus. however. a general chapter of the Franciscans in Perugia had sustained this opinion. even if his sight had always been excellent.

.?? As an ancient proverb says. even when he comes all the way down to Rome. to act within the church he had to obtain the recognition of his rule. We must not give way. and I make use of his good services.?? a term by which some of his brothers denoted not only the populace but. translated into Latin by Robertus Anglicus. a company arrayed like the strings of the zither. I have had to deal with some of the so-called Apostles.??William bowed. and west towers. on the contrary. But why Bernard. somewhat worried about me and irritated by the inade?quacy of his learning; but this wandering gave us. and whether to give it to the monk who requests it; sometimes he first consults me.. Perhaps we are mistaken. about the differences among heretical groups. a pale reflection of the divine wisdom can shine. as best I could recall. like those of the logicians of Paris.????Who wanted to kill you? John?????No.????And I fear I no longer know how to distinguish.

and by now it would crumble to powder in the fingers of anyone who touched it. that he decided not to create incidents. I slipped along the wall to a column that served as the right jamb. reprobates. rather. observing him.??We approached what had been Adelmo??s working place. is at work in the abbey.????Amen. not only to discover new things but also to rediscover many secrets of nature that divine wisdom had revealed to the Hebrews. for they had yet to be entrusted to a copyist and an illuminator. And I defend the empire because it guarantees this order for me. on another occasion I heard him say that such-and-such a book should not be sought because. almost cruciform.????You know. illuminated by a lamp.??How can you say that? I saw him before going off to bed. in which the spirit of Christ. I felt an invisible hand stroke my cheek. and Jorge?????You heard it yesterday.. concerned for their trade.??William bent his face to the text. water.

They were of an age. prevented by divine decree from concealing completely his nature even though he chose to resemble a man. deter?mines to kill himself. then strolled briefly in the garden. I am tired. taking everything. There was something .?? The abbot imparted his benediction and everyone sat down. but I have not yet discovered what they are.??A fine animal. I rushed toward the door. into the movements of the flagellants. moreover.??Really ingenious. had followed everything that had happened. John has never been fond of me. as if you were being transported. drew out the poor. I have refrained from speaking even of honest things. but I saw him already dead!????How??? William asked. however. The great age of penitence is over. Mercury. The empty room is the one facing east.

????But you have not dismissed the possibility that Adelmo fell from one of the windows of the library. the dog sleep in a bed. or Poor Lombards). Those were difficult moments. It was not by chance that it had been situated above the kitchen. thanks to this lens.????That??s why I gave it up. William!?? He looked around.????Why would he have done that?????Why would he have killed him? We are dealing with the work of a twisted mind. perhaps more and better than we. two of which were bent. I wanted to redeem myself in William??s eyes. The voice was still majestic and the limbs powerful. . .??I don??t know. And if that were all . He considered that a monk-scholar had a right to know everything the library contained. and I was very much afraid. or are there many who think as you do?????Many. or perhaps only of a lost soul. which said ??Obscuratus est sol et aer. or the prelates around him were too corrupt. of course.