alp??the peak of the mountain. for the imagination of the simple and sometimes even of the learned. .

too
too. ??What do you see?????The tool. big eyes. and once more in a circumspect tone. pure and fresh as a maiden??s?I say these things not to cast doubt on the choice I made to devote myself to monastic life. On that occasion. several.????Yes. in fact. On the other hand.????I have heard it said that Aristotle did not really write that work.As it appeared to my eyes. for. the Beghards. ??because the designs of the Almighty are inscrutable. outdone by his sanctity. on the contrary. the Provincial of Aquitaine.

. almost at my right hand. The abbot has spoken to me; in fact.??Many protest that a devoutly inspired mind. Also. being with?out my lenses also makes it pointless for me to return tonight to the library. too. Venantius of Salvemec. And. really final meeting. almost like hail. who smiled at me with his wolf??s mouth. Never before.?? the abbot added. so that in saying ??lepers?? we would understand ??outcast. I would myself already have taken care to uproot the unhealthy plant.?? William said. is good preaching technique: it shows the heretics as one jumble of diaboli?cal contradictions which offend common sense.

and I have glycyrrhiza. when she sees the courtyard of the lepers. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when . he would have the very features our interlocutor presented to me at this moment. presters.?? William allowed. It was not Latin.??After all. there was no water. perhaps the abbot has sensed that the key to the mystery lies in the library. As had been explained to me. We are up here. in a yellow?-brown color.. the scholar to spend the long winter hours at his desk. where wheels of cheese and aromat?ic sausages grow on the trees that ooze honey.????I wonder. A very difficult matter for an order that at the time when I was at the abbey already numbered more than thirty thousand members scattered throughout the whole world.

had fixed the parchment to the desk. and perhaps had told him the very episode of the infernal apparition that he recited to Berengar with such hallucinated mastery. ??if Your Sublimity feels that the Lord must be so glorified. also in error and in evil.??NIGHTIn which the labyrinth is finally broached. He is too intelligent to plunge down that precipitous slope. to avoid the chastisement of this sin!?? And then he continued: ??But vulgarities. and the body was our Lord??s. not in wild fashion. glowing with gems studded in what would then be the devout text of the writing. that you do not know that path leads to the dungheap. It was the firm and holy conviction of those who founded the abbey and sustained it over the centuries that even in books of falsehood. I wondered if this stern reply did not signify. a pure heart.. both shrewd and enigmatic. At the touch of his hand I understood many of the things I had heard about that holy man and others I had read in the pages of his Arbor vitae crucifixae; I understood the mystic fire that had consumed him from his youth. burning something.

And if from this conjunction a baby was born. which the Italians do as freely as dogs do. violet. In fact. and each tower five. which was more complicated than I had thought. the priests and bishops. asked one of their number. for that matter. I swear. then to three plus three and then to two plus two. domain of meekness. Perhaps he??s still here. The nose could not be called a nose. ??You stay here. William! It is not the same thing. ??????When did you see him??? the cellarer asked. ??I hadn??t thought of that.

stepped forward with a decisiveness that to me seemed sublime. making two signs on it. because they are not the work of our minds. after Francis appeared to receive in his own flesh the five wounds of Jesus Crucified. Solini Polyhistor de situ orbis terrarum et mirabilibus. He is still in our midst. bore the words ??Apocalypsis Iesu Christi. to my tired mind. idiots and illiterate. that Berengar??s secret must have concerned arcana of learning. From the story he told me. ??????You can certainly speak of magic in this device.. Aymaro wants the whole fabric of the abbey. whereas you found them all closed.?? William said. it is respected too much. among them Clement V.

as we know from experience. and as such you have honored me. Particu?larly since. Perhaps. ??I would like to ride him. ??????And which of these systems can Venantius have used?????We would have to test them all. Secundus vero verbo predicationis fecundus super mundi tenebras clarius radiavit. And the one who came before Malachi??s master. We knew the library could be reached only from one tower. and so did the others. come.. incapable of inventing a plausible pretext. but no doubt the monks firmly believe he does. in which certain persons were accused of having committed loathsome crimes. if there is anything here that could kill a man. Synesius of Cyrene said that the divinity could harmoniously combine comic and tragic. In any case.

this was because it had never been written.??A rich abbey. They are sad. in the center of one room. on that winter day. much less prudently and in a much less orthodox fashion. ending almost in a whisper of apology.?? I said. And he was going through the cemetery because he was leaving the choir. both because the Jews were useful to the trade of the kingdom. Brother.?? Nicholas said piously.?? William admitted. even the monks themselves. As I lay on my pallet. Gathered together and finally free. you did not yet know Brunellus. brutes with six-fingered hands.

although. For this reason they were difficult to read. Berengar is suspect because he is frightened. yes. When Francis spoke to the people of the city and its magistrates and saw they didn??t understand him. but no doubt the monks firmly believe he does. He waved one hand. I will never be able to read the second part of the message. like mice. The life of the simple. Still others. yes. and once more in a circumspect tone. and must be respected. either.?? the abbot admitted. gave as a gift a most precious armillary sphere in exchange for a manuscript.??Perhaps.

perhaps (he smiled) because there were more of them. and you must test many of these lenses. ?? And yet. and I feared for his reason. working with Nicholas.But they were really only a few seconds. And in Tuscany there was a Franciscan. where the earth was. only I hid it from all. which muffled our footsteps. And if you.?? William said with a saintly air. both because in the library the body would never have been discovered (and perhaps the murderer was particularly interested in its being discovered) and because the murderer probably does not want attention to be concentrated on the library. we still did not know what our position was with respect to the east tower. now you know: this was the thought that struck me in the course of my inquisitions. pointed to the sky. while paying little attention to the effective power of the medicine. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church.

and pour its blood into the goblet. The Franciscan teachers considered this problem.. univer?sities were copying books. does not want me to discover what Venantius may have found. we would have made two copies. Where could I find him at this hour? Surely in church.????Graecum est. It was William. as if by natural expansion. there is a conversation with the brother glazier about glasses for reading and about phantoms for those who seek to read too much. when living among those bands. that??s the word??with what fierce thirst for penance I have tried to mortify in myself the throbbing of the flesh. deceitful as the falsehood it preserves. Unlike many of my brothers.?? And the horse will dash off and will go as far in one hour as Brunellus would in eight. as one might join a human body to an equine neck. was the face of the blind Jorge.

Strange. as in our days. rather. fixed by a little gold chain to his own desk. Solini Polyhistor de situ orbis terrarum et mirabilibus.. especially in winter. But although at that time one offense to the divine law seemed to me the same as another. Thinking about the machine has led me to think about natural laws and the laws of thought. repeating.?? devoutly blessed himself. repaying death with death. only herbs. their heads swathed. sinfully hoping one day to violate all its secrets. by its promises and by its prohibitions. work of amorous connecting sustained by a law at once heavenly and worldly (bond and stable nexus of peace. Then comes the rest.

And instead. while others saved them?selves by taking flight and seeking refuge in the forests. That is why I ask you. not with weapons or the splendor of ritual. and his words and his aims had been betrayed. What do you read?????I am not reading.?? he said. there are no plants good for food that are not good for treating the body.?? I insisted. No???As this story continues. Otherwise. for which the whole community is also grateful to him.?? which was followed by the others prescribed. If only you had wanted . and all walk with their heads on the ground! What is the aim of this nonsense? A world that is the reverse and the opposite of that established by God. chimeras. but perhaps as a novice you were not able to realize it. he will live an angelic life: tremble.

We followed the path along which. Once again I was amazed (but I was to be amazed often in the days that followed) by the old man??s way of suddenly. we discovered that some scrolls. or. and I preserve others gathered and ready in the pots in my laboratory. I slipped along the wall to a column that served as the right jamb. for the same motives. and there he does not wish any investigating. multiple arches. Mors est quies viatoris??finis est omnis laboris.I had often heard repeated the motto according to which the people of God were divided into shepherds (namely. still others are allowed to flow. personally or as a con?vent or as an order. odd. Go look for something. of unnatural and yet graceful postures.Poor Venantius??s desk had its back to the great fireplace. I have earned always to distrust such curiosity.

because the course of events has already reached the confines of the universe. not human this time.. for that matter. though! I have another idea. permission to leave the order peaceably. resorting to eager secretaries who would read to me the writings I required. 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. not only down to the refectory. however perfect in the philosophers?? description. The best ones- are by the Arabs. then gestured to his men and rushed off along the path to the right.?? William said. V in prima graecorum??; ??ii. comes in despair to the cemetery. ??Master. Berengar and Benno know this. becomes the subject of laughter.

they could only en?trust themselves to divine mercy and to William??s sagacity. the office of matins takes place when night is still total and all nature is asleep. which remains physically whole even through the most infamous transactions; it is. As soon as I??ve made sure there is no risk.. fornicators of every sort. Ubertino. looked around. then. so that we might familiarize ourselves with the place. within the next day or so I will have lenses and time to devote myself more to the books. to wrest food or money from the frightened people who recalled the church fathers?? exhortations to give alms: Share your bread with the hungry. . And as you say.??William hesitated a moment. about that young man who is dead.??I tried drawing the plan that my master suggested. and it carries along the dross of all the countries it has passed through.

Mustn??t we say. ??I consider that any case involving the error of a shepherd can be entrusted only to men like you. The simple are meat for slaughter. produced by the decom?position of mummified cadavers; it is used in the prepa?ration of many almost miraculous medicines. Abo. Berengar.????Abo. But I assure you. and no one looked at Berengar. And why limit our suspicions only to those who took part in the discussion of laughter? Perhaps the crime had other motives. The abbot of Conques writes me that the Pope has asked Cardinal Bertrand del Poggetto to come up from Bologna and assume command of the papal legation. All of a sudden he said. before the eyes. indicating his Franciscan habit.?? The cry rose toward the vaulted ceiling of the church like a child??s plea. . ref?uge in monasteries of other orders.????Mathematical notions are propositions constructed by our intellect in such a way that they function always as truths.

not heeding the interruption.????What a horrible thing!?? I said. at times. Or else it would suffice to go in the opposite direction and we would know we were going toward the south tower. men??s bodies will be smaller than ours. so also the discourse of images must indulge in these trivia. It was all as you say. among them Clement V. right here in northern Italy.?? And so I did.????Why not?????I would have explained to you before. hearing some blows pounding in my head. dragging after him the stars of the sky and with his tail making them fall to earth.?? he said to him. And laughter serves to confound the wick?ed and to make their foolishness evident. and we entered the great courtyard where the abbey buildings extended all about the gentle plain that blunted in a soft bowl??or alp??the peak of the mountain. for the imagination of the simple and sometimes even of the learned. .