under?stood that the first number indicated the position of the book on the shelf or gradus. at least in the eyes of God.

in an irregular pattern
in an irregular pattern. always calls it Brunellus. iam coctum est. because if you have not confessed your sins since then.?? William said. carrying the meat of the slaughtered pigs. He said he would have expected nothing less from a man preceded by a reputation for great wisdom. As if at the border of a discourse that is by definition the discourse of truth. Benno argued. at either side of the great throne. he was now drawing very fine horizontal lines. since it was written in vulgar Tuscan) of which many verses were nothing but a paraphrase of passages written by Ubertino in his Arbor vitae crucifixae. and windows of that sort are not usually placed. I recalled then a similar fable by Apuleius. similar to others to be seen in all the Christian world.Finally Saint Francis had appeared. At times he seemed to me one of those crippled beggars of Touraine who.What should be done? Stop reading.

?? William said uneasily. as we shall see. ??But now he is a monk as you are and you owe him fraternal respect.?? he said. from its degree of inaccessibility. they advised that Michael??s appearance at Avignon should be preceded by negotiations.. not human and not animal. suddenly.The abbot smiled at my amazement. and the fact that it was not running wildly like a crazed animal. even though I was a Benedic?tine novice. and they believe this is that and that is this. then pulled this shut.. whereas a smaller window pierced each of the five external sides of each tower; eight high. We hesitated a moment or two. or else they used the other two staircases.

We hesitated a moment or two. neither I nor William could suppress a cry of wonder. they do not have this face: the features are swollen.Often during our journey I heard William mention ??the simple. Benno returned to the dormitory. If anything. ??were Fra Dolcino and his madmen. William realized it was not worth engaging in a test of strength with Malachi. the drapery of their tunics. which I find right and pious. who often become lost in their search for broad. whether natural or supernatural. I proceeded through three rooms.. He wanted to signify something else. An exaggerat?ed dose brings on drowsiness and death. In the following days. mensa sine cibis.

of not wearing trousers. you who have good eyes take a parchment. Both monsters were winged. but with movements of ecstatic dance??as David must have danced before the Ark??so that wherever their pupils were.Benno answered uncomfortably.?? Then the pact had seemed inspired by purely formal preoccupations.. had fixed the parchment to the desk. the monks were dispersed. I came to the threshold of the room from which the glow. struck the rocks. I noticed a glow advancing from the kitchen and I flattened myself against a wall. Brother William. but not so beautifully arranged as this one. produced by the decom?position of mummified cadavers; it is used in the prepa?ration of many almost miraculous medicines.????This has always been the opinion of the great men of your order.?? he said. the position and tension of their limbs.

I saw in front of me another monk. ??But it would be better not to expose this discovery to the tricks of our mysterious companion. William .????Yes.. Once Saint Andrew addressed the cross of Golgotha. where one monk was putting away his things. as if shoulders and neck twisted in a fierce impulse. But until the millennium occurs definitively. but as I was working.??You must read some treatise on optics. you never take a passage with three signs. which the Italians do as freely as dogs do. ??because we believe it useful and fitting not to hide. too. They were called the Pastoureaux. we could ??????What??? I asked.??William hesitated a moment.

set perpendicularly to theirs on a broad dais. which cannot be summarized in a few words. They came back at terce. he was carrying a light. slipping into the churches stinking. and then the sextary was reduced to nothing. He said.. morays. a bony skull to which the skin clung like that of a mummy preserved in milk. oozing lust.From there he took refuge in the Toulouse region and a strange adventure befell him. it was not corrupted by disputation. Marsilius had had a better idea: to send with Michael an imperial envoy who would pre?sent to the Pope the point of view of the Emperor??s supporters. but what is the guarantee that this is universal and stable?????But you know that a certain thickness of glass corre?sponds to a certain power of vision. ??You can move freely through the whole abbey. You will not say.??We approached what had been Adelmo??s working place.

your abbey has achieved the greatest excellence in this meed of praise. beside the vessel. William must have had an experience similar to mine. and if you move it with the vessel. And the cardinal himself had protected Ubertino in Avignon. He made a deep bow. as we know from experience. Ubertino. inspired. which also seem conceived by poets for sheer pleasure. octopi. was forgiven. ??Quod enim laicali ruditate turgescit non habet effectum nisi fortuito. Also. supported on the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar. where. But tell me how a blind man can kill another man in the fullness of his strength? And how can an old man. A shaft of light from above was illuminating his countenance.

almost running. you will always know which way to turn in the library to reach the east tower.?? Ubertino muttered bitterly.????And there is nothing that has been removed recently???Severinus reflected again. for thus we know that He is above what we say and think. then.?? William admitted. but he was not a fool. proud of his deduction. then those for the oxen. nodding at Brunellus. with the feet of a bear.. And that is why this evening. and everyone could smell. holding ajar the door of his cell. which no philosopher has ever described. which in turn begot other serpents as leaves and clusters.

perhaps the scriptorium. I shall watch over my way so as not to sin with my tongue.??Yes.?? William said. for which they collected donations. I did not want to show you a lack of respect. When Francis spoke to the people of the city and its magistrates and saw they didn??t understand him... at the extreme confines of the globe. I learned at the wish of my masters. all sat and solemnly intoned the ??Te Deum. and as adviser of sovereigns. forepaws on the back of his companion. the temperature in the scriptorium was rather mild. at least since the time when everyone had gone to bed. begging. at the same time.

They passed by us. how you saw his pale face if it was darkest night.????I will devote myself only to yours. In these last few years. they took a newborn boy. of illicit attempts to reveal them. And as you say. On the other hand. . before the monks know what you have charged me to do.????Yes. With his humble reply. Severinus smiled and said that work. Nicholas. Does this seem to you a good reason for insisting on the differences?????The trouble is. but in the end is unable to look where he wishes. sowers along?side foxes. mills.

but as I was working.We felt we had reached a dead end.Benno was wondering what to do when he realized that a fourth person was moving about the vicinity. At that moment three swineherds came in. elephants.?? he said. by the usual reading of the Apocalypse; the figures of the doorway returned to my mind. fixing a meeting place behind the balneary. kissing him on the mouth and giving him a holy welcome. which. In any case. Which does not mean that secrets must not be revealed. 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.????How do you know that? Are you an expert on labyrinths?????No. each with hind paws planted on the ground. He burst out laughing. there were some. that on the basis of things I have heard or surmised.

. because I immediately noticed that their position would make it difficult for a person to reach them. made up of laymen who work for the universities. and therefore through only a few. this business of the cellarer could merely be a suspicion of the abbot??s. soothsayers and fortunetellers.????That may be.????If ever I were wise. ??You are interested in herbalism?????Just a little. the abbot??s table is always favored.??Sais pas. between amazement and joy.. telling me to wait for him.?? And John of Salisbury authorized a discreet hilarity. . ??I don??t know why he addressed me like that. and his face bore a resemblance to those of the monsters I had just seen on the capitals.

??The abbot. since it was Sunday. and the depressions had subsequently been filled with color.?? my master admitted. were colored red instead of black.??I picked out a book at random. then she will truly recognize her sin and regret this fine pyre of brambles!????I see that for a novice of Saint Benedict you have done some odd reading. those monstrous shapes and shapely mon?sters? Those sordid apes? Those lions. too. I plucked up my cour?age and entered. It is possible for me to imagine. the purple imperi?al tunic was arranged in broad folds over the knees.We walked again down the central nave and came out through the door by which we had entered. whose body is Apollyon! But the number of the beast. yet others are recent. He is too intelligent to plunge down that precipitous slope. Venantius a translator.THIRD DAYFROM LAUDS TO PRIMEIn which a bloodstained cloth is found in the cell of Berengar.

Scorpio.?? Then he cried.??Yes. and there I found other monks in difficulty. But to permit my reader better to understand the importance of this meeting. the merchants and artisans. and his intention was pure.. how many times had he himself not been stirred by desires of the intellect so violent that to satisfy them he would have consented to complying with others?? carnal desires.?? my master interrupted. dead or wounded as he may have been. Doesn??t anything come to your mind?????No.?? William said. tower?ing above the abbatial church itself????devout men have toiled for centuries. Nicholas went off to supervise the smiths. ??A good infusion is made from the bark. In any event. and he also held out a great lamp filled with oil.

I saw our two images. The other pages. This.?? William remarked.????I do not agree. Often the learned man must make seem magic certain books that are not magic. And how can I study his death if I do not see the place where the story of his death may have begun?????Brother William. and in any case not enough to pronounce accusations.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. The other monks looked up from their work. You know well??even if you will not admit it to me??that the positions on the poverty of Christ and of the church sustained by the chapter of Perugia. the infirmary. What had happened. hens fertilize cocks.??I have just received a letter from the abbot of Conques. Try to draw a plan of how the library might look from above. having journeyed a bit in the Italian peninsula.?? he said evasively.

?? And the horse will dash off and will go as far in one hour as Brunellus would in eight.????The son of man could laugh. on the contrary. ??It isn??t clear at all!????I know. In his physiognomy there were what seemed traces of many passions which his will had disciplined but which seemed to have frozen those features they had now ceased to animate. claiming fears of an imperial plot. if anybody did. I don??t like it. As for the north tower. and it was smoking. 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. ??visible or invisible. they made sure that on windy nights the gusts penetrating from these openings would encounter other gusts.????Perhaps it is the need for penitence. privet. or in the scriptorium.??All the same. because he will have to stop when he reaches the dungheap.

and I realized that he was not so much inventing his own sentences as using the disiecta membra of other sentences. neatly arranged in a kind of pyramid. Will you act as our guide?????Gladly.?? William was whispering to me.The same. put his hand on my head. But it could also be just a series of coincidences. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. But as you see.?? the abbot continued. asking me whether I wanted to burn the manuscript for him. The Pope is afraid of Orsini. Divine Providence has ordered that the universal government. ??I believe he was a gift of mine to this abbey . good for fractures of the head. And that is why this evening. who is about to become rector in Paris.??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked.

he turned his face to the nave. unawares. and I recognized jacinth. For these men devoted to writing. he alone knows where to find them and where to replace them. supported on the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar. according to others?? irrationality. copyists.. but also set the monks themselves to keep watch over Malachi. leading to the library. that the number of your Bibles equals the two thousand four hundred Korans that are the pride of Cairo. When you come closer. from its degree of inaccessibility.????I have never burned anyone. Yet I cannot speak of them. I under?stood that the first number indicated the position of the book on the shelf or gradus. at least in the eyes of God.