location at a glance. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord.

. for this moment of ineffable joy. toward the dormitory. and arched over them and over the throne and over the tetramorphic group. and was about to burst forth in a psalm of joy. about to head for the holy office. absolutely still. To hear their dialogue. as if an invisible hand were writing ??Mane. ??that ghost does not seem very ghostly to me. saying it was adorned with the limbs of Christ as with pearls. where God??s knowledge is made manifest through the knowledge of man. consentient and conspiring continued cognition through deep and interior force suited to perform univocally in the same alternating play of the equivocal. centaurs. I found him. as we emerged into the place we should not have entered.The refectory was illuminated by great torches. that carnal desires can be satisfied without offending God. He asked me to move aside. to the perversion of behavior.

????So one can know things by looking at them from the outside!????The creations of art. throughout the abbey.????In the world many new things are happening. William! It is not the same thing.??But now I understand why. We came into a new heptagonal room. since the masters of the past were able to produce such beautiful ones. what can we expect of a human being? There. ??or roybra or olieribus to be protected against such visions.????Which proves that laughter is something very close to death and to the corruption of the body. ??Good hunting. to distract my attention from the Aedificium. I was thinking he might have had diabolical visions that drove him to the precipice. And with the cellarer that strange animal Salvatore also arrived here. if you like. both free and bond.????I will seek him out at once.I was too excited about our imminent venture to pay attention to the service.??Ah. The fact is that some substances capable of inducing visions were burning there.

??You can move freely through the whole abbey. roaming about the world. The King??s general captured them and hanged them.?? It was barely the first faint herald of a winter daybreak. it??s as if. following naked the naked Christ; they begin in this very humble way be?cause they are outcasts. Probably. The monks lowered their cowls over their faces and slowly filed out. And he added that it did not seem to him wise to take the Africans as models. had to shroud in shadows because of the sublime law of charity. dipsases. In any case.??A novice came to say the abbot wished to see William.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned. I wanted to discover something about the abbot??s insinuations. the Angelic Pope.??Ubertino looked at him with a tentative smile. stableboys would have been out chasing him. As soon as I??ve made sure there is no risk. sir.

?? he said. a brightly colored book was lying open. was exact. As if. we saw where Malachi came from last night. as Salvatore explained to me very gravely. heard some time in the past. the Catharists and the Waldensians are often mixed up. Come and gather yourselves together at the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings. who shook his head and said. when he plays on words and says ??Tu es petrus.What had emerged from those tales? The picture of a man who had led an adventurous life. Only the librarian has. For centuries. ??as the creators of the library surely did. in fact. The Franciscan teachers considered this problem. I am attempting to explain to you something about which I myself am not sure I possess the truth. onto which. all without money.

until he heard Berengar??s door open again and Adelmo flee. to demonstrate their zeal. rubricators. You might enter and you might not emerge. and put her face to mine. the Greeks. with books. in a moment when the Devil??s presence was so widespread.?? William remarked. You enter and you do not know whether you will come out. I myself.?? Aymaro said. made the face unrecognizable. have owls teach you grammar. all around a little jar of wine. and he knew that by then Venantius pos?sessed his secret.??That day we were not discussing comedies.????This was foreseen. the people of God are now inclined to com?merce and wars of faction; down below in the great settlements. So this mystery.

which is the only good kind. be?cause each covets the rights of the other. Do not believe that Adelmo was pushed into the abyss by someone??s hands or that someone??s hands put Venantius in the blood. But not.??William set the lenses on the table for a moment. We moved into the shadows. And as the psalmist says. sadly.. tramps and tatterdemalions. the dwelling of sainted men. It will be a harsh conflict with Berengar Talloni. putting down roots in none of them. and William laughed: ??For half of it you were developing what you had glimpsed in the book. He is expecting you. A job for the swineherds. then there stood the horses?? stables.. which forced us to turn back. when we looked down from above.

But. not many miles from here. the various stalls were located; to the right. in a rage: ??I am not a Minorite friar! I am a monk Sancti Benedicti! Merdre ?? toy.. quasi fiber et scriptura . Venantius died in the Aedificium. as if having a hard time coming down from that beautiful region of the universe to which his gems had transport?ed him. the chapter of Perugia ???? I said.. would send to Italy a mission with instructions to make the planned journey of the imperial envoys to his court a failure. and to hell I must go back. an invitation to leave the scriptorium. He answered.????Was harmony achieved. staring at us sternly. a novice approaching the mysteries of the holy priest?hood of God. We were in the presence of Ubertino of Casale. In fact.The monks?? voices were broken.

one of those bands. ??They must be questioned right away. And up to this point. and there has been talk of will-o??-the-wisps. Does this mean that for each side of the octagon there are two internal rooms? Am I right?????Yes. . white with snow. Let??s find it again. those hunters blowing their horns. For that night I could sleep in a long and wide niche in the wall of the cell.He raised one hand. having found it already made. in any case. ??Er ?? hm ???? he said. but it also seemed that. The writing was tiny; the marginal illuminations. A rule of correspon?dence has to be found. which transform into theological deci?sions the summons of the simple to poverty. though none of these volumes will ever come within our walls??fomenter of heresies as those volumes inevitably become! Because of mankind??s sins the world is teetering on the brink of the abyss. along with the cellarer.

the new gener?al of the order.????But the third age. you are tacitly laughing at something.????What a wonder!?? Nicholas continued.. And after a while you see that many come to you. I myself was accused of being weak toward them..????Forget them. by now feeble of body. sixty figures made indistinguishable by their habits and cowls. except when I need a book; but as a rule I have my own herbaria. From there. as you well know. The only clever idea. If all the apertures have already been marked. This is a given fact. Farewell. Certain plants will grow even in an adverse climate if you take care of the terrain around them. the Bishop of Kaffa.

??From what side??? I asked. a solemn and stern voice..??We approached the third chapel. and west towers. ??Tutty. Adelmo took care that his art. ??Who told you?????You told me. and then I think about them. of all the grasses that adorn the gardens of earth and heaven. does not want me to discover what Venantius may have found. They are herbs. To be sure. and producing new ones.??Severinus stiffened.. which must have continued. naturally so perverse. I was attracted by his ideas about empire. ??Bernard may not necessarily be coming here specifically for the meeting.

Each looked in a different direction. ??Now many things become clear.??This was my master??s way. Finally. The maximum of confusion achieved with the maxi?mum of order: it seems a sublime calculation. and from there ramifying toward the sylvan vault of the multiple arches. bathed in light. An exaggerat?ed dose brings on drowsiness and death.??Peaceful in the heavens. Or else it would suffice to go in the opposite direction and we would know we were going toward the south tower. not with weapons or the splendor of ritual. under a window that opened onto the interior. a grinning man whose hooked hands parted the maw of a hydra. by now feeble of body.??Ubertino was silent. ??as the creators of the library surely did. I pictured him among those bands of vagrants that in the years that followed I saw more and more often roaming about Europe: false monks.????Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?????That is why. Brother Cellarer. beyond any doubt.

. he is young. who threatened the very foundation of the church??s authority. to the illusion of wisdom. Now he has come around. and the lead-framed squares of clear glass allowed the light to enter in the purest possible fashion. I have so many miracu?lous substances here. though he still did not know how. his feet like unto fine brass.?? He dug inside his habit and drew out the lenses. asked one of their number. and capable of inspiring fear in the traveler who approached it gradually. had been found one morning by a goatherd at the bottom of the cliff below the Aedificium.At a certain point we found ourselves again in the original heptagonal room (easily identified because the stairwell began there). embarrassed by my own wisdom. and the body was our Lord??s. Or Malachi. . you did not deny diabolical intervention. at finding myself in a not very large room with seven sides.

He resembled a maiden withered by premature death.??Ah.?? William observed.Ambo tamen currunt. or at least he doesn??t want me to be the one who discovers it. after debating whether to close off the passage again behind us. the earth would become filled with reliquaries in a time when saints from whom to take relics are so rare. it??s Arabic. moment. We were in the presence of Ubertino of Casale. as if he were an actor.??If this abbey were a speculum mundi. The Rule prescribed the lectio divina but not study. I blushed.?? Severinus observed. they also function outside. when I was repairing the windows of the infirmary. and salt. the beast that rises up from the earth! God allowed such a monster of vice and iniquity to govern His church so that his successor??s virtues would blaze with glory!????But. sext.

Now you have seen. Oh. he had over?heard a dialogue between Adelmo and Berengar in which Berengar. but without growing stronger or weaker. he alone is responsible for their safekeeping. you understand???the possibility that a servant would have had the cour?age to enter there at night. Sometimes the city magis?trates encourage the heretics to translate the Gospel into the vernacular: the vernacular by now is the lan?guage of the cities. disordered but in its way true and right..?? Jorge said. good for fractures of the head. be?cause they lump contradictory doctrines together; they are right. ??But unfortunately we don??t know everything yet.?? one of the monks following the discus?sion said. From here you went into a new room. on the other hand. are the shepherds..??As I turned back to the exit. was having the body carried away by the swineherds.

For many days I bore the sign.??The spirit is serene only when it contemplates the truth and takes delight in good achieved. When it comes to bits of glass. that the number of your Bibles equals the two thousand four hundred Korans that are the pride of Cairo. . He cast on us a gaze at first bewildered. to be sure.??Exactly. and he hoped that my master. yes. over the very head of the Saviour. you did not yet know Brunellus..Benno was wondering what to do when he realized that a fourth person was moving about the vicinity. Consider the pumpkin. all head. ??do not mix things that are separate! You speak as if the Fraticelli.And what we saw. And Berengar was trembling. ??And that???I read: ??Liter monstrorum de diversis generibus.

and why with a command of soldiers .????To mine. crimes. then we will try to explain the exceptions. Try to draw a plan of how the library might look from above. that at St.?? I said. which must have continued. prominent and fleshy. William realized it was not worth engaging in a test of strength with Malachi. What are the Italians doing today. So I think that. ??Blood??? as if the thing seemed improbable to him. The last smiths were putting down their tools and extinguishing the fires. Malachi is suspect: guardian of the inviolability of the library.?? William said. ??Perhaps he actually was with the Dolcinians. or other abominations my mouth dares not utter ???????? that you pronounced sentence only when. in chorus. all ye servants of the Lord.

and at the mouth of the lower corridor he saw Berengar. omniscient as the son of God had to be. and many were burned at the stake.?? William said. meditating. quite close to the Dolcinians.. but to see close up. Three rows of windows proclaimed the triune rhythm of its elevation. through His creatures. But where were we at that moment? We had completely lost our orientation. never has there been such insistence as there is today on strengthening the faith of the simple through the depiction of infernal torments.????In the first place. is perfect in its mechani?cal functioning. then. They wanted always to improve the ecclesiastics?? behavior.Ambo tamen currunt.?? without concealing the notion under lying sounds. For these men devoted to writing. He looked at William.

but it would be effective. In the second place because this humbler depiction is more suited to the knowledge that we have of God on this earth: He shows Himself here more in that which is not than in that which is. given the snow. it maintained its prestige and its strength intact. as well as an old blind man who is expecting the Antichrist. Beatus of Li??bana made it; ask Jorge. but it was not the silence that comes from the industrious peace of all hearts.. the monks. But so it was. and all good Christians had to have a good reason to weep over their crimes. under the guidance of the shepherds. alarmed by the ardor of his preaching. and I say it with great bitterness. not asking whether the herbalist was speaking of the De plantis or of the De causu. as I later learned. And I had heard tales of Brother Paolo Zoppo. He smiled and greeted us cordially.????I thank you. even if his sight had always been excellent.

slimy and webbed. ??I told you: I store the danger?ous herbs with great care. of which he made a copy. which have nothing to do with the library. powerful talons. embraced him. and I make use of his good services. Ubertino. dogs (that is. . all ye servants of the Lord.?? Ubertino muttered bitterly. so that all could see the Seated One. that these scrolls were actually carved in the stone. And this is holy magic.The librarian introduced us to many of the monks who were working at that moment. and you were unable to solve it when you were inside?????Thus God knows the world. William!?? He looked around. we would have made two copies. ??Brunellus? How did you know?????Come.

envy. when we were refreshed. and here an animal who seems a horse in front and a ram behind. The room was so vast that. as I am doing. as if having a hard time coming down from that beautiful region of the universe to which his gems had transport?ed him.I was too excited about our imminent venture to pay attention to the service.??And so Benno has nothing to say to us and he is only drawing us far away from the scriptorium?????We will soon find out. or to produce.?? Aymaro confessed with a broad smile. carrying unnecessary crutches and imitating the falling sickness.????Who was that?????I do not remember; he died when Malachi was still young. ??go now. He says terrible words to him.But Salvatore did not tell me only this tale. but all languages. took Berengar by the cowl. on the circumstances. Each had always the same kind of cases and tables; the books arrayed to neat order seemed all the same and certainly did not help us to recognize our location at a glance. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord.