Metadatos

• Autor: Umberto Eco
• Año de publicación: 1980 / trad. al inglés 1983

Estructura, historia

Epígrafe:

• Naturally, a manusccript
• Prefacio (?): se cuenta la historia de hallazgo y pérdida del manuscrito

Prólogo:

• Adso presenta sus circunstancias actuales, el propósito de su narración, los circunstancias que rodearon la historia que está por contar, presenta a Brother William y las características de su viaje juntos.

First day:

• Prime:

  • They reach the foot of the abbey
  • William demonstrates his ability as a detective, indicating some monks who have lost a horse, where the horse is, its name and appearance, just by reading the isgns he has at hand
  • The layout of the abbey is described

• Terce:

  • William and the abbot have a conversation
    • the abbot tells him that a young monk called Adelmo of Otranto, was discovered dead in the snow, at the bottom of a cliff below the Aedificium
      • Adelmo was an illuminator in training
    • the abbot asks William to investigate this death
    • William expresses his desire to visit the library, but the abbot tells him that no one is allowed to go inside the library, apart from the librarian himself

• Sext:

  • William and Adso visit the church.
    • long description of the frescoes that adorn the door of the church, full of beauty and horror
    • they meet a monk called Salvatore, who speaks in a mix of languages
  • William meets a friend he has not seen in a long time, Ubertino of Casale, and they have a long conversation abou their views on heressy and the different factions within the church

• Toward nones

  • They meet Severinus the herbalist monk, William has a long conversation with him about herbs
  • Severinus shows signs of knowing more about Adelmo’s death than what his words suggest

• After nones:

  • William and Adso visit the scriptorium and Adelmo’s desk
  • They meet the librarian, malachi of Hildesheim, and other monks who work there
  • monks see William using his glasses to read the library’s catalogue
  • they meet Jorge of Burgos, a blind monk who talks about the depiction of bad images on the grounds of it being exemplary
    • it is suggested that his blindness is due to is deep interes for these images
  • A monk interrupts Jorge and talks about a discussion he and Adelmo had before his death regarding this subject. Jorge claims not to remember this conversation.

• Vespers:

  • Adso and William visit the rest of the abbey

  • They meet Nicholas of Morimondo, master glazier of the abbey, who shows a lot of interest for William’s glasses

    • William and this monk have a conversation about the access to science and knowledge

  • William states some conclusions about Adelmo’s death:

    • something is happening in the ibrary at night
    • he thinks Adelmo killed himself, this offers a simpler explanation to the circumstances of his death

  • Compline:

    • They have an indulgent meal
    • Jorge de Burgos converses with William about laughter, and about whether Christ laughed or not

Second day:

• Matins:

  • William and Adso join the other monks in prayers
  • While the prayer takes place, and before sunshine, the ritual is interrupted by the servants announcing the sight of a dead man, Venantius of Salvemec (Greek scholar they had encountered the day before in the library)
  • brother William and Adso investigate the scene of the crime. The abbot asks William to act quickly
  • William talks to Severinus, the herbalist, again

• Prime:

  • William and Adso observe the monks’ faces as they pray, and William decides that Benno and Berengar must be interrogated
  • Benno:
    • he expands on the aforementioned discussion on imagery by Adelmo and Jorge
    • he reveals that after the argument Adelmo and Venantius, both now dead, apporached Berengar and confabulated with him
      • During the argument Berengar had spoken of African riddles
    • William suspects that Benno is trying to distract them from something else he does not want them to see
    • William becomes more curious about the library

• Berengar:

  • Williams presses Berengar, stating he was the last person to see Adelmo alive
  • Berengar confesses having seen him in the cemetery, thought he was a ghost
  • William suspects Adelmo died because of something Berengar showed or taught him, or made him do

• William and Adso speak of penitence

• Terce

  • William and Adso hear Salvatore and the cook have a quarrel involving a "whore" that Salvatore allegedly "fucks at night", and heressy
  • William and Adso speak of penitence again
  • William and Aymaro of Alessandria have a discussion
    • about the relationship between royal and religious power, the diminished status of the abbey and the consequences suffered by the library and the circulation of knowledge.
    • He disapproves, and states that improper things are taking place in the abbey
    • Aymaro states that curiosity among monks is being deterred
    • William tells Adso that Aymaro has noticed the loss of power of the abbey because of the importance of money, and that he wants a transformation of the abbey through which it can claim power again: through ecnomic power
  • William and Adso visit the scriptorium again
  • Adso notices that the coldest part of the scriptorium, which no one wants to occupy, is the closest one to that staircase that leads to the library
  • They examine Venantius’ desk, closer to the fireplace
  • Jorge appears again, as if out of nowehere
    • Adso comments on how all the monks go to him for knowledge
    • Jorge and William have another discussion re laughter and Jesus’ laughter
      • Jorge unwittingly admits to having had the discussion about the licitness of laughter he said he did not remember the day before
      • Jorge gets upset, William apologizes
    • William and Adso search Venantius’ desk, shortly thereafter Benno tells William they must talk outside.
      • William asks Malachi, the librarian, to watch Venantius’ desk. He suspects that Benno and the other monks do not want them to find something there, but that they do not know what that something is

• Sext

  • During the conversation it becomes clear that Benno wanted to find an excuse to keep them away from Venantius’ desk, but what he says reveals that he knows bits and pieces of something important going on in the abbey
    • Benno reveals himself to be young and struggling with the limitations that the monastic discipline is setting on his curiosity
    • He tells them that Berengar fancied Adelmo and that he saw Berenger proposition something to Adelmo Adelmo slipping into Berengar’s cell in the night, then leave, running
    • He then saw him go to Jorge, and later leave him, terrified
    • He also saw Venantius see the scene and later speak with Adelmo
    • From this, William infers that Adelmo killed himself, because of the shame and lack of support from the other monks, and that Venantius was later killed because he knows the secret
    • William considers that Berengar, Malachi, Jorge, and also Benno himself, are suspects
    • William resolves they must enter the library that night
  • Nones
    • The abbot and William discuss the display of wealth in the abbey.
    • they discuss the different heressies and factions within the church
      • there is a possibe connection that could be made, between the crimes taking place in the abbot, and the theses of these different groups. The abbot fears that the visit of a company of archers sent belonging to the King of France, supposed to overview the meetings between the different factions, will disrupt the abbey’s life even more (RELEER)
      • the abbot suggests the cellar was involved in heressy and that he may be linked to the crimes
    • William tells Adso that the abbot may be trying to distract them from the library
    • Also concludes he knows too much already

• After Vespers

  • The pair go for a walk and meet Alinardo of Grotaferrata
    • he tells them that before others went up to the library
    • he tells them that the library can be accessed once the Aedificium is closed by way of the ossarium

• Compline

  • After a sad dinner, William and Adso enter the ossarium the way in which Alinardo has indicated
  • They access the scriptorium and notice that two books are missing from Venantius desk. A page lies on the floor revealing the hurry with which they were taken
  • when they examine it, because Adso brings a litght too close to it, some signs appear in a brownish color
  • They discover someone else is there with them, someone who wants to distract them from Venantius’ desk. They chase the figure to no avail
  • When they return to the desk, they notice that William’s glasses have been stolen, though the paper with the emerging signs remains with him.

• Night

  • They visit the library and get lost in the labyrinth
  • they discover various tricks put in place to disorient and scare visitors
  • they finally find a way out and the abbot tells them that Berengar is missing

Third day

• From lauds to prime

  • a bloodstained cloth is found in Berengar’s cell

• Terce

  • Adso goes to the library and reflects on books and knowledge

• Sext

  • Salvatore and Adso speak over lunch, Salvatore tells him about his whereabouts before his arrival at the abbey.
  • When Adso asks him about Fra Dolcino, Salvatore becomes hostile and leaves

• Nones

  • As Williams waits for Nicholas to make him a new pair of glasses, Adso and him speak of heressy. Adso has a lot of doubts and questions which William tries to ellucidate.

• Vespers:

  • the abbot announces that Bernard Gui will be sent to the abbey. He is a "remarkably learned" inquisitor
  • the abbot asks William to solve the murder mistery quickly, but he refuses to let them in the library
  • William and Adso observe the library from outside and draw a map of it
  • Adso asks Salvatore for food, he provides it along with a lamp to Adso, showing he knows what they plan to do later

• After compline

  • Ubertino tells Adso the story of Fra Dolcino
  • Adso recalls the story of Brother Michael’s death by burning
  • Adso goes to the library on his own and sees books with illuminations of women
  • Adso meets a girl in the abbey’s kitchen and they have sex

• Night

  • Adso confesses to William
  • Adso and William discover a dead body in balneary. it’s Berengar.

Fourth day

• Lauds

  • William and Severinus examine Berengar’s body and find out two of his fingers are black (which Severinus reveals was also the case with Venantius’), when they open his mouth they find his tongue is also black
  • Severinus tells William of a very powerful substance he kept and had been stolen.
    • He had told about it to Malachi and Berengar, because he needed to find something out about its ingredientes.
    • Others might have heard
  • As they leave, Malachi shows up and acts suspiciously

• Prime

  • William interrogates Salvatore
    • he confesses that the girl that Adso met in the kitchen had been brought it by him for the cellarer
    • he confesses that he met Remigio as they were both part of Dolcino’s band, and they had been together since, having entered the abbey together
    • Severinus finds William’s lenses in Berengar’s clothes and Nicholas gives him a new pair he has just finished making
    • Williams goes to decipher the signs in the manuscript

• Terce

  • Adso walks the abbey’s grounds thinking about the girl and feeling love
  • William and Adso meet again and William tells him about what he has deciphered from the manuscript. They must find out which book these notes are taken from, which on their own don’t say much.

• Sext

  • Adso goes hunting for truffles with Severinus
  • the Minorites arrive
  • Adso is present in the meeting between Ubertino, William and Michael of Cesena
  • They discuss the plants of John XXII: do declare that nor heaven nor hell will open their gates until the final judgment, basing himself on a new interpretation of the scriptures

• Vespers

  • William and Adso meet Alinardo as they wait for suppertime, and he tells them about how he almost became a librarian
  • William and Adso discuss William’s methods to achieve the truth

• After compline

Recursividad

• esctructura: días estructurados de los monjes, la estructura se repite una y otra vez
• recursividad de los inventos y máquinas antes y después de la Edad Media (17)
• descripción de la biblioteca como laberinto (36)

Lenguaje

• Idioma hecho de idiomas hablado por Salvatore (46-47)

Signos, huellas, imágenes y palabras

• episodio en el que William descubre el nombre y paradero del caballo
• descripción de la iglesa y el fresco (40-45), interpretado como un signo de los hechos que van a ocurrir
• description of the footprints in the snow as a palimpsest
• description of the crime scene and the body, like a detective novel