death? And they tore him to pieces; but they spared the children. quite close to the Dolcinians.

I happened on a delicately illuminated page where a very beautiful unicorn was depicted
I happened on a delicately illuminated page where a very beautiful unicorn was depicted. small but quick. sometimes on the same page. Proceeding through an aperture that bears only one sign. and to act as mediator between the Franciscan order and the papal throne. his voice as the sound of many waters. He would remain with his assistant. turning?? again to William. I can suggest some hypotheses. he alone is responsible for their safekeeping. As Isidore of Seville said. But the tone of his voice was that of one possessing only the gift of prophecy.??That day we were not discussing comedies. they go about barefoot and possess nothing. Aymaro heard him and raised his eyes to heaven.?? I repeated.??That is possible. I feel weary. and that is why they discovered him only now. Malachi explained to him what the abbot had already said: the monk asked the librarian for the work he wished to consult and the librarian then went to fetch it from the library above. only with the words of the people among whom he had eaten that food. the moment he finds out.

.. The science Bacon spoke of rests unquestionably on these propositions. And so my curiosity stayed with me. that the number of your Bibles equals the two thousand four hundred Korans that are the pride of Cairo. not so much a tower as a solid. Abo hoped his guest would be able to devote a part of his valuable time to shedding light on a painful enigma. he went out through here. William said he had only just eaten??very well. but the monks assigned to work on books still spent some hours up there. The rebels against power are those denied any connection with money. if too many hands touch it. ab?solved those who committed robberies and fratricides. and before my eyes was a scroll that said ??Requiescant a laboribus suis. Finally. and often it is useful for monks to exchange the accumulated treasures of their learning. who at your side enjoyed rich stuffs lined with squirrel fur and jewels.????I have been told that one of your best illuminators died recently. you will make the letters in red larger. The simple have some?thing more than do learned doctors. had appeared on the upper part of the page. sirens.

the reign of the just begins; then comes the Antichrist. whose praises they were singing.?? The cry rose toward the vaulted ceiling of the church like a child??s plea. because he was touching his cheek as he held up the light and looked around. each with one window.?? I said. sated and unsated at the same time. without too much salis.?? William interrupted me. are now the refuge of the slothful? The order is still powerful. there exist great iron mines!????Someone. who is now your friend.?? An image. A magician of my country . With his laughter the fool says in his heart.I came out of church less tired but with my mind confused: the body does not enjoy peaceful rest except in the night hours. good for sleep .. but apparently John is recalling him to duty. jugglers.. I said to myself with a certain pride.

and the higher mountain to the north whose sylvan balsams we receive. when he was roaming for the love of Christ). a most holy hermit rose to the papal throne.????I told you: I don??t visit the scriptorium. bewildered. He reformulated the alphabet according to an?other key. William has lost the assistance of the Lord. and died dreadfully.. ??And if that were all. parsley. also twisted as if in a dance step. as my master remarked at once. after Francis appeared to receive in his own flesh the five wounds of Jesus Crucified. ??But they had no connection with the Minorites. Invent it. but I know well this attitude did not displease my master. ??but at this point we come up against the question raised yesterday. to defend the Franciscans?? cause. You will not say.We sang the words of the divine book and. Neatly spaced.

. the first servants rise at dawn.. this was because it had never been written. harking back to the word of Christ. It will be then that God will have to send His servants. Laughter shakes the body.. William and I chose to sit in a position allowing us to study their faces when the liturgy did not require cowls to be lowered. I don??t spend my day in the scriptorium. One of them. I laughed at his comical Latin. Now you have seen. oozing lust. This room was without other apertures: once you reached it. there exist great iron mines!????Someone. They knew we were there to discover something about Venantius. on the diversity of the sacred virtues. on the side of the Aedificium between the south tower and the east tower. have dogs bite fleas. these images tell of that country where you arrive mounted on a blue goose. as if the holy band were struck by an impetuous wind.

?? without concealing the notion under lying sounds. the Emperor against the Pope. I am not speaking only of Ubertino. however. especially when he is already troubled by a sense of guilt.. without any access.?? He took from his habit a little knife and slowly held it toward the stone. had brought me close to the truth. emerging from the south tower. as if the enemy were lurking within those walls????but I believe also that often the Evil One works through second causes. now you know: this was the thought that struck me in the course of my inquisitions. yes. Thanks to his long familiarity with many manual tasks (which he had performed both for dishonest purposes. especially as the daylight failed. And. the cellarer of the monastery. in wondrous congruency of the parts with the delightful sweetness of hues. Perhaps for this reason he was begging Brother William to uncover a secret he himself suspected. too. Nor did I like??I shall be frank??the way you induced Bentivenga to confess his errors. .

to touch the imagination of devout throngs it is necessary to intro?duce exempla. and he said he was laughing because it had occurred to him that if one sought carefully among the Africans.. are numer?ous and become mingled. in a very loud voice. who. a summons to supernatural visions of suffering and blood. on summer days. Because not all truths are for all ears.. Behind. however. we should make them for the universities and concern ourselves with what is happen?ing down in the valley??I do not mean with the Emperor. even if you do not yet know whether it is a horse or an ass. simula?tors of dropsy. which I was using earlier to imagine a horse I had not yet seen. Some niches had only tiny bones. had fixed the parchment to the desk. He is about to come. And if Adelmo came from the choir. Mustn??t we say.????You??? Ubertino exclaimed.

The scroll in the first room said ??Super thronos viginti quatuor. can teach and preach.?? He took from his habit a little knife and slowly held it toward the stone. He added then. that certain properties cannot be attributed to divine things. a long time ago.The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians. but you do not want to go through the ossarium. It is always done because on earth there does exist a hell. ??if Your Sublimity feels that the Lord must be so glorified. and perhaps against it. is the great?ness of our order: for centuries and centuries men like these have seen the barbarian hordes burst in. as if having a hard time coming down from that beautiful region of the universe to which his gems had transport?ed him. . as Honorius would have it. And postea you put a bit of butierro or lardo to rechauffer over the embers. and a lamp. I was thinking about it today.????But who was right.. And the Jews sallying forth below the walls of the tower defended themselves courageously and pitilessly. precisely so that they would not succumb to a desire for penance that??in this case??really was heretical and frightened all.

sure enough. as if staring at pages vivid in his memory. with a dark coat. our host did not want to soil his hands with food. unnoticed. it is always better when the person who frightens us is also afraid of us. ?? In short. and aqu?? refectorium and pray to dominum nostrum. the spiritual inventions of the simple. For this reason they were difficult to read. who often become lost in their search for broad. came Severinus. chopping turnips.?? Jorge said sharply. for some could use them to evil ends. his face radiant with bliss. ??What is that??? William asked.??I understand. But Jorge interrupted the flow of my thoughts because he re?sumed speaking. so Venantius has the impression that the secret of the library is more important than he had believed. according to a law that does not change. even if his sight had always been excellent.

having found nothing. but also the stone that surrounds us.??The abbey was asked to do it by the lord of Milan. The fact remains that this story confirms a series of my suppositions. and the drop on his friend??s hand was only a drop of wax.. as we do here. Gathered together and finally free. But since I don??t know what substance he used and the signs could disappear again: quickly. In fact. there is a conversation with the brother glazier about glasses for reading and about phantoms for those who seek to read too much. cast a shadow on the pallor of his face and gave a certain suffering quality to his large melancholy eyes. so different in our ideas and traditions. Brother William. and other species of these last years. ??The city of B??ziers was captured and our forces had no regard for dignity of sex or age. two of which were bent. A magician of my country . deter?mines to kill himself. or a falling star..?? I prayed silently.

I believe. where the abbey??s treasure is kept. But what am I saying? I am here to defend the rights of Louis. Now. question faces. The simple grasp a truth of their own. I don??t like it. On his table was a very beautiful collection of multicol?ored pieces of glass.?? He took off his lenses. And Adelmo that day quoted another lofty authority. 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. there are to be found many wise observations on witty riddles.??In order for there to be a mirror of the world.????Good. Here we talk too much. Only then did I truly know that my previous reasoning.?? William commented.?? Nicholas exclaimed. Dark. thick mane and tail. the central octagon. William had renounced the duties of inquisitor because he could no longer see it.

and swirl inside the sequence of rooms. the windows must have been closed. And a man carrying another man??s body leaves deep tracks in snow. Two monks climbed to the pulpit and intoned the ninety-fourth psalm. He thought that the new natural science should be the great new enterprise of the learned: to coordinate. And if in this passage the prophet teaches us that sometimes our love of silence should cause us to refrain from speaking even of licit things. since it was Sunday. because the librarian came to us. stood a slender column on which a stone Virgin was set.????But for the library this suffices.Berengar was consumed. I did hear him on occasion talking with other monks.??To judge by the angles of the walls.????I must point out to Your Sublimity that now he is a brother of your own order. speak like this because you do not really be?lieve in the advent of the Antichrist. Actually. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth. At a certain point. the great works of stained glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before.?? I pointed out. There is an immense abyss between the high ecstasy of the heart loving Christ Crucified and the base. provided it does not take place in the refectory or during the hours of the holy offices.

The inquisitors are mistaken. that there is no fear of God before his eyes. The Devil (God save us!) does not tempt a monk with serpents and two-headed men. Venantius was so interest?ed in the problems of comedy; in fact. turning to the old man. He sits in the first row. And. Brother. by itself is not enough. and as we looked at them. Good. as the schools have tried to gloss it. Brother William. a monk could have other reasons for venturing into a forbidden place. In fact.????How could he carry a light if it was raining and snowing?????It was after compline. I drank a bowl of warm milk and was heartened at once. When I say to the abbot. I saw the shadow I was pursuing as it slipped past the refectory door. but through the purest love of the prime. . Where is Berengar? What has happened to him? What are you doing?????I am only a monk who.

And he began to walk faster.?? William said uneasily. not heeding the interruption. The library was laid out on a plan which has remained obscure to all over the centuries. sincere followers of poverty and chastity. That is it. laden with books neatly arranged. 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. Malachi told him outright that. rather. filled with rage. ??is Jorge of Burgos. and I saw that it is one thing for a crowd. they would not have been displeased. . are they confused and spoken of as the same evil weed?????I told you: what makes them live is also what makes them die. But this palimpsest is badly scrape and perhaps we will read nothing interesting on it. to undermine the false authority of an absurd proposition that offends reason. then embraced him. to derange the minds of the curious. it seems. John had not dared condemn him (though he then condemned the others).

what a gravelike voice he had as he spoke to me!????And what did he say????? ??I am damned!?? That is what he said to me. to keep up the spirits of his disciples. producing the sounds we have heard. harvesters. William!?? He looked around. further.I looked at him with curiosity. rather. at either side of the great throne. And he was going through the cemetery because he was leaving the choir. for the same reason and because they would then be excessively long rooms. Let us try to proceed in peace. It could be that he is involved in some matter he thought unrelated to Adelmo??s death. I should have been prepared for the library??s surprises. and while he spoke we realized that this monk was still young.????Yes. doesn??t it?????Yes. for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe??; and He that sat on the cloud thrust His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. I didn??t mean that it is necessary to conceal the sources of knowledge. however.Beneath the west tower an enormous oven opened. with a smile and a kind of bow.

because. but also noble ladies and merchants.????A splendid enterprise.. one of those bands. if you will not confess me. based on principles of maximum strictness.?? William said. But if it was living.????But if only they didn??t sin. the sea catching flue. . that two years later he would be mysteriously killed in a German city by a murderer never discovered??I am all the more terrified. and never more than during these sad days.????Who was that?????I do not remember; he died when Malachi was still young. incapable of inventing a plausible pretext. I think those are lamps prepared for visions. both deeply involved in their task. except that of nec?romancers. If Adelmo fell from the east tower. Eight.????Good.

that they are true to their order.We sang the words of the divine book and.. and this is exactly what makes the nature of the flock unsure. Ubertino interrupted him and said in a very bitter voice. I asked myself whether the abbey were truly a place of concealed mysteries. on the other hand. Eat garlic instead.????Furthermore.. we found no exit. in?deed firmly set on the earth. almost a centenarian. worried. for we had partaken of nothing since rising. and with the fat of a black snake and a scrap of a shroud.?? William said then. are the reasons for the silence and the darkness that surround the library: it is the preserve of learning but can maintain this learning unsullied only if it pre?vents its reaching anyone at all. I mean. you would already have the answer. Our order knew some slothful ones who never crowed at sunrise. the Pope was condemning also the other.

Country people. struck the rocks. and the library itself. . If a monk succumbed to drowsiness. not so much a tower as a solid. From here you went into a new room. to copy manuscripts to be found nowhere else and to carry them back then to their own house. Have you never seen the altar of the chapel that leads to the ossarium?????It is the third on the left. man and woman. not least because honored guests frequently sit there. just as they were with the source of all heavenly power. In these last few years. She.. a tool. And William rubbed his hands as I had seen him do in many other instances when he was pleased with something. But that depends on what you mean by poison. We were talking about those excluded from the flock of sheep. So the faith of the simple was mocked. with great dismay. as the grooms led our mules away.

. mouth taut in a threatening snarl. Do not seal my lips by opening yours. a most holy hermit rose to the papal throne. Gall only a few monks are left who know how to write. and crossed the cloister to reach the pilgrims?? hospice. After all.. and you know why you act. And Brother William examined them smiling and remarked. You pretended you wished to enter his sect. as Averro?s says. had probably confessed; why did he seek to punish his first sin with a sin surely greater still. They are herbs. at each floor. for a time. through the lens. and he was chewing it as if it gave him a kind of calm stimulus. had not clotted. Brother William.??He is. equally horrible cries.

even though I was a Benedic?tine novice.. for the monk must rise in darkness and pray at length in darkness. and I could not refrain from repeating them:Aller wunder si geswigen. William called him.?? my master replied. 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.. jugs.??As I turned back to the exit. and they believe this is that and that is this.?? and from there. I have put a curb upon my mouth. others are confided by Berengar of Arundel. without being able to see the sun or the stars. at his face promising and threatening. sated and unsated at the same time. The life of the simple. yesterday??s snow. Walter Map warned against what would happen if credence were given to those foolish and illiterate men the Waldensians. he had chosen the abbey where we now were. proud of his deduction.

????Poverty ???? the abbot said. its ink and gold turn dull. who has decreed all things. transform?ing the struggle against riches into a series of private vendettas or bloodthirsty follies. You??re dis?traught and you need water and fresh air.. after another four rooms. murmuring to Peter of Sant??Albano. And that will be full knowledge. Severinus explained to us that monks working in the scriptorium were exempted from the offices of terce. and he revealed his doubts to William. and all filled with volumes in unknown languages. ??But if you are hunting for Brunellus. But in your country. that on the basis of things I have heard or surmised. Some stay here a short time. at the far eastern end of the plain. when I learned of his death.?? William said. we shall see if they are there. about the differences among heretical groups. and truth and good are not to be laughed at.

What do you read?????I am not reading. which will confine with the heptagonal room. ??and I appreciate your courtesy all the more since. on the contrary (and along with them the Arnoldists. It opened into another room. they were Brothers of the Free Spirit; you said as much yourself.??We entered the choir. just like those that time would inexorably destroy. and William obviously decided to exploit. if you know a bit of the learning of the Arabs. I should have been prepared for the library??s surprises. ears like sails? Those spotted tigers. which supported the tympanum. with very careful choice of words and with long paraphrases. perhaps larger but less well proportioned. all things considered. ??And why not??? He explained to me that all his life preachers had told him the Jews were the enemies of Christianity and accumulated possessions that had been denied the Christian poor. In any case. I owe it to the mercy of the Lord. If all the apertures have already been marked. But the Shepherds said to him: You have massacred your people and now you want to evade death? And they tore him to pieces; but they spared the children. quite close to the Dolcinians.