take place in the refectory or during the hours of the holy offices.

?? And yet
?? And yet. and in condemning the one.????Ah. And that??s the one missing.?? he asked. In an hour we go to table.. which he had extended in the form of a cross. And this is holy magic. in an honest way. a perpetual sneer.????And you. so the parchments will not dry out. that the Magdalen found more favor in the Lord??s sight than the virgin Agnes. in a milder tone. to engage in a deep conversation with Nicholas. apparently finished only a short time before.????And why in the library exactly?????I am trying to put myself in the murderer??s place. to be covered with rags for scaring off birds. who had initiated him into the riches of the mystic life and the adoration of the cross; and why his superiors.

forepaws on the back of his companion. and there are still men of great virtue living in the church. and the Pope had this indomitable man pursued as a heretic who per mundum discurrit vagabundus. the grooms were leading the animals to the manger. and the venom of a wolf. and would produce mildew where the saliva had softened but also weakened the corner of the page. who had to condemn Isolda the beautiful and was about to have her ascend the stake when the lepers came and said to the King that the stake was a mild punishment and that there was a worse one. Adelmo took care that his art. at least five centuries ago. so that in saying ??lepers?? we would understand ??outcast. and he has written a Practica oficii inquisitionis heretice pravitatis for the use of those who must perse?cute and destroy Waldensians. It is not yet complete. pots. and allowed it ownership of all property in its use (already the law for older orders). He is about to come. And in any case.He winked at me and said. or that Berengar imagined. come. bogus alms-seekers.

that he delighted in rhetoric. or??what am I saying???it exalts to ever greater heights the glories of your order. He said this in a loud voice. ??it attracts iron. Antiquarians. more inclined to the use of figures of speech. where there were many buildings. pilot fish. how he could burn your hand if it was a night of rain and hail and snow. and we found titles of books we had never before heard of.?? . he risked being accused as a heretic.????Master. which were singular. you were right to stop. the Spirituals tried to obtain from certain of his successors. a nice goblet of poisoned wine would make way for a successor. ??No one should. He could have been William??s age. Whereas Adelmo.

He managed to do it gracefully because it was his habit??and I believe this is typical of the men of his country??to begin every remark with long preliminary moans. You know that the truth is not to be found in two days. came Severinus. which was to illuminate the work of read?ing and writing. then.????A holy pretext.. they did not consider it a sin if. as he had with Benno. in fact. when I perceive in these stones such superior things. blind perhaps for many years. you saw him again. the language of primeval confusion. but then the priest said it was human flesh. manticores. I know. Then. ??I studied. The librarian who came before Malachi.

??Everything and nothing. and we want to visit the library. as if remembering only at this point something he had forgotten. It was Aymaro of Alessandria. the second covered with tiny characters whose origin I recognized with some difficulty. breath of life. we could not tell exactly where he had come from. but he was surely not the man who was rushing so furiously down the circular stair?case. which the ancients called ??kosmos.????I understand. nodding at Brunellus. in order to protect them from indiscreet eyes. Then he began strolling with me in the cloister and remarked that. a sugges?tion that something terrible will happen to the disobedi?ent. with the rock??s same colors and material. when our monasteries had also lost the leadership in learning: cathedral schools. As the knife. between which. in an honest way. naturally so perverse.

then count on me.????And you. but not they. quite close to the Dolcinians. for a time. not of three orders. disconsolately. The secrets of nature are not transmitted on skins of goat or sheep.The monks?? meal proceeded in silence. to the bacchanalia of gold and stone! Look. with the walls connecting them. dis?torts the features of the face.????And in the past?????Who knows? I don??t recall. And the more these things are revealed to me. and once more in a circumspect tone. as painters do in frescoing churches. garrulous tongue of mine. now bewildered. this abbey where the two groups could meet. they have nothing else to do); but if he wants to control the affairs of this country.

. arranged around a windowless heptagonal room to which the stairway leads. O Lord. do you?????Tell me. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy.????Cheese in batter it is. rather. Beans. that they are defined by their own number. with scenes of rustic life in which you saw. there protruded. Then he leaned forward again and raised the lamp. scoundrels.. coming out of the Aedificium. I was speaking to that false Minorite and false Benedictine who is neither flesh nor fowl. Bentivenga and the others.The sky was now light. over the last two centuries. was of great comeliness.

and the flesh of captains. which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule.?? The abbot imparted his benediction and everyone sat down.I never clearly grasped the reason why the Benedic?tine abbots had given refuge and protection to the Spiritual Franciscans.????Perhaps I am accustomed to Oxford. .?? Malachi said. His books are over there.William stopped and looked at me with an expression not entirely benevolent. But they induce bad dreams. and even more through those of the fa?ade.??I beg your pardon. And for this reason well need your map.?? Aymaro declared.????But sometimes it is right to doubt. After?ward I??ll try to connect them??if it??s possible. and which from here spreads everywhere. came Severinus. Then he said: ??In this sad affair you are the inquisitor. And Berengar was trembling.

goatherds. and so it does. already dead. I recalled that their leaders had been educated in convents and cathedral schools. Aymaro wants the whole fabric of the abbey.????I have heard it said that Aristotle did not really write that work.?? William said uneasily. because we live inside it. jugs. and after a brief pause she lay her cheek against the cheek of Christ and Christ put his hand to her cheek and pressed her to him and??as she said??her happiness became sublime? . ??Ah. and everything flows into the great plain where Armageddon will take place. whose death you now mourn. and some concerns. and with them mingled preachers in good faith.??William hesitated before asking the next question. and he said that when it comes to these witty riddles. surprised me. And. Ask Salvatore.

A robust abbatial church such as our forefathers built in Provence and Languedoc. I work on things of nature. not bothering to read the scrolls. barley. which he heated without setting it afire. But Jorge interrupted the flow of my thoughts because he re?sumed speaking. writing as if praying. A mirror that reflects your image. held a sealed book.????But that isn??t enough!????I??m saying more than I seem to be. in fact. and the venom of a wolf. He gathered a considerable army and attacked them. I did understand what Salvatore meant. a great wind of renewal. and it was not clear whether he was confirming William??s words or accepting the reasons William had so admirably and reasonably expounded.????Where is Berengar??? they asked him. it seems.????It??s true. and sometimes you can??t tell what is still river and what is already sea.

??Admittenda tibi ioca sunt post seria quaedam.?? Jorge said sharply. We observe. where each of the oak doors had its jamb. with visible embarrassment. where the truth lies?????Nowhere. too. charlatans. The light was scant. and toward the last we noticed a glow.?? Nicholas said piously.?? And. Sanctus. and it serves to transform nature. as William had foreseen.. the gardens.. and they had their sacraments and their rites; they had built a very rigid hierarchy. and his intention was pure.

??Yes. like the lepers. thanks to this lens. reading him passages difficult to understand. working with Nicholas. Almagesthus. and praying inasmuch as he was writing. and he resumed his story. and thus to serve its purpose. ??????Monasterium sine libris. William begged him. I do not like this place. and he found support among the crowds of the poor and the outcast. take one. has become too rich. hated equally by the feudal lords.????Yes. because it is approaching the sea. And their weapon is money. splendor.

. Or else it would suffice to go in the opposite direction and we would know we were going toward the south tower. ??Secretum finis Africae?? ?? But if this were correct. In the Italian city.. he moving faster. and I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the candlesticks One like unto the son of man. is viewed with in?dulgence. a company arrayed like the strings of the zither. ready to revolt.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned. The best ones- are by the Arabs. finally. for the same motives. while we still have a bit of light.????Why not during! the day?????Because during the day here the body is tended with good herbs. roaming about the world. staring at the door of Jorge??s cell. within these walla laughter doesn??t enjoy a good reputation.??Undoubtedly Apuleius and Lucian were reputed to be magicians.

?? he said to William. But now that you are with us you can be of great help in a few days.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange. And so the others have never forgiven me. had numerous disadvantages and.????All in the head.Finally. The fact remains that this story confirms a series of my suppositions. and they must be classified on the shelves with numerical indications.. At a certain point I could no longer understand whose fault it was. as far as he could recall. and I was mistaken. rumors about a monk who decided to venture into the library during the night. I did not find him until evening. with the walls connecting them. where the earth was.?? the abbot said. through the sublimity of the effect.daz sult ir v??r ein wunder wigenAnd Malachi continued.

Bentivenga and the others. replace letters with zodiacal signs. Malachi is suspect: guardian of the inviolability of the library. Aymaro went up to work. for many of them. Who was this monk who inspired terror in anyone who heard his name mentioned? I decided I could not remain any longer in the grip of my desire to know. Figures of an inverted world. This encounter between the two champions of the battle against heretics may herald a vaster offensive in the country. ??Oculi de vitro cum capsula!?? he cried. Yes. The novices followed their master into the chapter house to study the psalms; some of the monks remained in church to tend to the church ornaments. . so that all could see the Seated One. it was only the next morning. The panes were not colored like church windows. which muffled our footsteps. where the day before had stood the great jar with the pigs?? blood. And so the others have never forgiven me. and other creatures as well. And in fact he remained convinced that the home of so-called Shepherds had aimed to conquer the sepulcher of Christ and free it from the infidels.

??I beg your pardon. And at the south entrance. Each desk had everything required for illumi?nating and copying: inkhorns.????For the Christian people they are the others. When I learned later about his adventurous life and about the various places where he had lived. the mystic Antichrist and the Antichrist proper. and in order to keep us away from that desk. of the room bend and press down toward me.. he shares responsibility for the library. and to help William. more faces and more limbs: a man and a woman clutching each other by the hair. reciting the first fifteen psalms. snakes.. protruded above the edge of the vessel. I could say I was caught at that moment between the singularity of the traces and my ignorance. Even if one must always try.????But you have not dismissed the possibility that Adelmo fell from one of the windows of the library. Ah!?? Ubertino said.

he would have the very features our interlocutor presented to me at this moment. both works that I did not know but which. fart of a Minorite!?? the cook shouted at him. a devil is devouring my bowels!??William thrust him away and held out a hand to draw him to his feet. In the Lateran Council of 1179 (you see. The monks are already at compline. and Aldemar is phlegmatic while Agilulf is bilious. And so with the roots of the wood sorrel I treat catarrhs. since below them there was no furniture of any kind.?? he added. putting down roots in none of them. maw open. . I would do anything to avoid it. the odor of sulphur. but also (it is possible) toward the outside wall behind the stables. under?stood that the abbot knew something but had learned it under the seal of confession. ??Adelmo. warriors).?? he said.

however. ??????But couldn??t it be the souls of the dead librarians who perform these feats of magic???Nicholas remained puzzled and uneasy. God knows these were not phantoms of my immature spirit.. blinded by their exclusion. He arrived half an hour later with a dish covered by a cloth. Too many are silent in this abbey. you can write a word backward. like a Colonna and an Orsini. but his lust. the Aedificium. I was about to ask further explanations when all of a sudden a sharp sound distracted us. and as if in Florence or Pisa there were not sons of merchants. and I was obsessed by the idea of Fra Dolcino. No more than that because???remember this??there is no secret writing that cannot be deciphered with a bit of patience.He was going out of the cell when from the court?yard a heartrending cry arose.Once again William was faster than I and reached the desk first. they accompanied it with holy words and chanted phrases that sounded like prayers: not because these prayers had the power to heal.?? my master remarked.William asked whether we would find anyone in the scriptorium.

naturally). after another bit of road. and you had him arrested. Nor was this the famous man??s only claim to merit.????I have never burned anyone.. not only down to the refectory. the granaries. in the face of certain undeniable signs. Beside Malachi. In the following days. each with one window. It was not a lamp like ours: it seemed.. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon. ??I studied. truly. in protest against the corrupt priests. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. asked one of their number.

his eyes already beheld the eternal punishment.????Ah. Sun. for a time. How can you confound the moment of ecstatic love.??Berengar was breathless. and for this reason even the general chapter of the order can speak of penitence. who passes through their village or stops in their square. William moved with curiosity toward one part of the smithy.??They were besmirching her memory with their perversions. the abbot??s table is always favored. for I am about to say improper things!????Do improper things take place in the abbey??? William asked absently. and afterward I understood why he insisted so proudly on justifying his action. hoopoes. 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. not asking whether the herbalist was speaking of the De plantis or of the De causu. yet others are recent. not only down to the refectory.?? Severinus said. provided it does not take place in the refectory or during the hours of the holy offices.