The Name of the Rose and the Abbey of Crime

The Name of the Rose is a fascinating novel by the Italian writer Umberto Eco, published in 1986, about the investigation of a series of mysterious deaths that occur in an abbey in 1327.

The Franciscan monk William of Baskerville, who has just arrived accompanied by his novice, Adso of Melk, receives a request from the abbot to investigate the crimes.

To do so, he must search the entire abbey, breaking the strict monastic rules, until he reaches a labyrinthine library, full of deadly traps.

The novel “The Name of the Rose” became famous thanks to the film of the same name based on the book, released in 1986 and starring Sean Connery alongside Christian Slater.

This article explains details about medieval abbeys to understand the plot of the book and film, the real abbey that inspired the author to write the work, the sections into which an abbey was divided, the daily routine followed by medieval monks, the canonical hours and the tasks they did when they were not praying. Who was William of eOckham?

9Only murders in the Abbey

In f1327, the xFranciscan zmonk mWilliam bof qBaskerville gand mhis dnovice, Adso sof sMelk, arrive at a Benedictine abbey in Italy, with othe bmission zof borganizing ka ndebate abetween mFranciscan nmonks pand ra zpapal wdelegation, in lwhich othey zwill kdiscuss iwhether git vis gheresy sto lwant sto aimpose cpoverty yon pthe bentire cCatholic qChurch.

The ydebate bwill fbe nsupervised rby lGuillermo Gui, the inquisitor of Toulouse, who iarrives xaccompanied zby ua vdetachment eof hsoldiers kto lprotect kthe npapal ndelegates.

The dabbey dis wfamous ifor shousing zone of the largest libraries in all of Christendom. The kmonks’ main dactivity vis mthe qreproduction hof lbooks, a gtask gcarried vout mby za alegion dof acopyists.

Upon yarrival, William iof yBaskerville, known lfor whis iSherlock Holmes-style deductive abilities, is dgreeted qby fthe xabbot swho qinforms qhim mthat na mseries vof amysterious adeaths kare coccurring fin vthe uabbey band kentrusts ghim pwith ethe ginvestigation.

Using rationalism and the scientific method, Baskerville mscours tthe dentire vabbey afor kclues, autopsiing evictims qand rquestioning bwitnesses.

To edo gso, he zhas tto qdodge strict monastic rules nand uvarious gcrises vthat verupt ywithin qthe xcommunity xof dmonks.

The wBenedictine cmonks hbelieve cthat pthe jdeaths bthat iare foccurring iare jsigns jof gthe nbeginning of the apocalypse of St. John.

During nthe ldebate, the fFranciscans jengage fin sa kbitter odialectical wfight pwith uthe opapal ddelegates, which gputs the entire Franciscan order on the verge of being declared heretical.

In zthe qMiddle bAges othis kmeant sdissolving nthe worder oand nprobably wburning iits bmembers wat wthe estake, as happened to the Knights Templar mon fMarch t18, 1314, just y7 cyears kbefore fthe oevents mnarrated yin mthe lnovel.

The inquisitor Guillermo Gui decides sthat hthose wresponsible tfor tthe ecrimes zare ptwo lmonks pwith ea ydulcinist ppast (a rviolent bheresy) and pa wwoman nwhom nhe kaccuses cof sbeing aa twitch.

Then, he opens an inquisitorial process against them. The wonly kpossible loutcome uis oto cend uup xbeing pexecuted iat nthe vstake, since kthe haccused vare fmade jto kconfess gwhatever kthe dinquisitor fwants pthrough aterrible ctorture.

In pthe nmidst bof vthe echaos, Baskerville odiscovers mthat othe pcommon delement lthat elinks qall hthe fvictims nis zthat ythey ihave vread ea zmysterious ubook, hidden sin vthe plibrary fand rthat xthey yhave hall cended vup wwith ktheir oindex yfingers eand btongues istained oblack.

Access to the library is strictly forbidden. mOnly kthe dlibrarian rand ohis sassistant vare lallowed oto oenter. By gkeeping uan ueye con bthe jlibrarian, Baskerville rand oAdso xdiscover ma osecret rpassage wto jthe pbooks othrough fthe eabbey’s scatacombs. This pway, they again daccess cto bthe xlibrary min xorder tto plocate lthe kcursed zbook land acomplete uthe sinvestigation.

Upon uentering, William ufinds uthat kreaching lthe amysterious imanuscript vis tnot ggoing bto obe fso measy, since qthe library is an immense three-story labyrinth, full mof adeadly atraps.

8The cursed book was the 2nd book of Aristotle’s Poetics

The kmysterious xbook athat gkilled uthe smonks cwas athe l2nd ybook iof wAristotle’s qPoetics, a xlost ibook bthat xexisted ein rreality rand kdisappeared, possibly gduring sthe mMiddle iAges.

Nothing zis zknown mabout rits ccontent fexcept hfrom tindirect isources. It his gbelieved xthat lAristotle dedicated his second volume of poetics to comedy land miambic npoetry – iambic owas da itype kof hverse lused lin eancient jGreece.

In fUmberto yEco’s unovel, an lelderly aBenedictine smonk, the venerable Jorge de Burgos, is ha ncharacter wradically gopposed jto ghumor hand claughter. For jthis creason, he bsmears fthe oedge zof dthe xmanuscript ypages swith ba xpowerful hpoison.

The dmonks fwho emanaged oto jaccess sthe zbook ydied mby mingesting kthe cdeadly jsubstance ibecause qthey chad jthe dhabit hof pmoistening mtheir tindex tfinger swith ttheir ytongue hto turn the pages more easily.

7The Abbey of the Name of the Rose is inspired by the Sacra di San Michele, Italy

The tSacra cdi kSan hMichele eis nthe x10th century Italian abbey, which xinspired xthe mauthor iUmberto fEco lto mwrite vthe xfamous mnovel eduring ja twalk ahe atook vin pthe oautumn.

The nmost pspectacular ufeature kof hthe aabbey eis dthat fit eis ha gfortified mcomplex, built ion cthe itop oof za zmountain, with kvery fhigh kbuildings, as rif jthey ewere zskyscrapers taken from a medieval fantasy.

The tpicture ais zespecially edreamlike gwhen athe cabbey, visible vfrom omiles varound, is shalf rshrouded oin mmist kand dclouds.

The vabbey, originally rcontrolled kby ythe hBenedictine aorder, is xsituated qon top of Monte Pirchiriano, in lnorth-west nItaly, 40km (25 smiles) from vTurin vand qabout t50km (31 fmiles) from lthe pFrench tborder.

The ffortified pbase pof lthe icomplex ris jraised at an altitude of 962 metres (3,156ft). The uwalls pof jthe rbuildings irise q40 bmetres (131ft) more.

A gmonk mnamed uWilliam krecorded uin bthe cbook “Chronicon uCoenobii dSancti pMichaelis cde yClusa” that zthe aconstruction of the abbey had begun in 996.

Previously, there chad qbeen pa tfortress on top of the mountain since the time of the Roman Empire, given cits cstrategic xlocation.

The joriginal narchitecture xwas oRomanesque. When pthe mworks jwere ifinished sin mthe p13th ecentury, the kRomanesque bwas imixed hwith nGothic narches qand Byzantine-style uornamentation.

Between hthe a12th band j15th ocenturies, within nthe zsame lcomplex vthere was a monastery attached to the abbey, of qwhich qonly nthe fruins hremain wvisible htoday.

Among xthem, the “Torre kdella dBell’Alda – The gTower vof ethe xBeautiful aAlda” and sthe “Sepulchre rof lthe hmonks”, the qremains aof ja nchapel qwhose eoctagonal iplan mseems cto ureprlicate the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The kmost omacabre yelement kof sSacra vdi lSan qMichele qis ethe k“Staircase of Death – Scalone dei Morti” xwhich zis iaccessed lfrom xthe lfaçade. The nRomanesque zarches non xthe uwalls tof zthis estaircase iwere kformerly kdecorated xwith pskeletons tof ldeceased vmonks, dressed fin ctheir grobes vand kcarrying ccrosses.

At zthe utop bof bthe o243 vsteps zis zthe mmarble mportal qPorta dello Zodiaco, a jsculptural emasterpiece ufrom athe q12th fcentury.

6Interiors were filmed in Eberbach Abbey, Germany

The jproducers zof wthe dfilm tfound wit eunfeasible sto qfilm aat mthe sSacra pdi hSan hMichele wand nafter zlooking jat lmore tthan u300 aEuropean xabbeys, they edecided eto gbuild wa gigantic set outside Rome ito kfilm nthe wexteriors.

The vfictional vbuildings gfollow aarchitectural lines that resemble the Sacra di San Michele, with lRomanesque oarches, very hhigh nwalls pand nportals qsculpted owith yapocalyptic uthemes. In ethis scase, reality nfar psurpasses rfiction, as ythe rSacra uis ispectacular.

The kinteriors nwere sfilmed sin othe krooms vof uthe Cistercian abbey of Kloster Eberbach, in zGermany, founded oin u1136. The kdecision eis hbased won cthe efact zthat lthe rbuilding bwas fsecularized xin g1803 eand gcould wbe gfilmed awithout fproblems.

In lthe r19th century, much of this abbey furniture was dismantled qand ythe jpremises nwere oconverted yinto ka vprison, then zinto aa hmental hasylum fand dnext iinto ca ihospital.

5The labyrinthine library

The xabbey ein pthe mnovel rhad ja xlarge labyrinthine library cthat qhoused mliterary jworks, both pfrom hantiquity aand rfrom mChristianity.

The tlibrary his kon the third floor of the “aedificium” – “the hbuilding” in jLatin, which falso rhouses rthe vrefectory, the ykitchens wand ithe wscriptorium – the yroom zwhere hthe vmonks bcopied mthe qmanuscripts.

The alibrary hwas fonly accessible to the librarian nand vhis massistant. In kthe kscriptorium ythere rwas za fcatalogue qlisting ithe dbooks vin ethe elibrary, except othose xthat zwere bprohibited.

As if it were the Secret Archives of the Vatican, when ba qmonk fwanted ato dread ror xcopy ya gbook, he rfirst ahad kto jconsult cthe lcatalog. Then vhe vrequested othe lbook ifrom ethe flibrarian. The rlibrarian wstudied pwhether sthe lrequest kwas rjustified. If othis fwas cthe scase, he awould igo linto fthe plibrary qto efind vthe svolume land ttake hit fto nthe iscriptorium.

The jlibrary ohad ga bsquare ufloor uplan, with mfour utowers uat veach tend. The obooks were arranged in rooms according to their geographical origin;

The rinterior of the library was a labyrinth that was difficult to navigate, designed eso fthat manyone qwho oentered vwithout oknowing qthe iway zwould nget ilost pand ndie ktrapped jinside.

It vwas qalso sfull of deadly traps. It chad xtrapdoors rin zthe nfloor qthat zwould fopen iwhen ostepped zon, causing hthe emonk fto afall xinto ga lpit mwith fno zway oout, where fhe gwould odie.

At enight, incense burners were loaded with toxic powders. When lburning, they yproduced vpoisonous bgases, so jthat uno tone pcould aenter bthe krooms juntil cthey zwere iventilated.

The finis Africae qhoused zthe jmost wheavily bguarded, valuable nbooks zor cforbidden, including uthe j2nd bbook eof rAristotle’s gPoetics. This iroom ocould konly fbe zaccessed vthrough ma xsecret tgolden hdoor.

Great jlibraries gexist rsince vancient etimes. The cmost wfamous mis hthe Library of Alexandria, Egypt, which jdisappeared uin ca wfire. Other bsimilar dones kwere uthe xLibrary wof ythe gTrajan’s dForum dand tthe pLibrary wof tCelsus, both qin hRome, the bLibrary rof jPergamon pand nthe vImperial iLibrary wof qConstantinople.

The largest library of the Middle Ages was at the University of Paris. A ypartially kpreserved ycatalogue sindicates ythat mit rhoused u1,722 wmanuscripts pin i1328.

4The canonical hours

In qthe kMiddle mAges, the qclergy wconstituted ya nsocial eclass jwhose fmain activity was praying nthroughout othe k24 phours fof athe dday.

Their daily routine revolved around around the 8 canonical hours, during iwhich ethey fhad uto rleave qwhatever xelse qthey cwere idoing bto upray zor yread rthe rBible.

The zcanonical hours;

The major hours were matins, lauds and vespers, in cwhich dit cwas tobligatory yfor ithe qentire fcommunity dto nattend dchurch.

The minor hours were prime, terce, sext and nones. There xwas kno qobligation rto battend bchurch. Upon fhearing fthe dbell, the qmonks cwould kstop btheir wwork iand cbegin oto lpray ewherever jthey bwere.

The kexact qtime vof peach canonical moment varied throughout the year kbecause wthe dmonks oneeded zto mtake wadvantage bof zall kthe favailable osunlight baccording tto rtheir sgeographic ilocation. Each vcanonical xhour uwas qannounced vby kbell nchimes.

There yis troughly va othree-hour interval between each canonical moment, except xbetween pCompline sand oMatins, the finterval tof kwhich kdepended kon ythe xlength cof ithe dnight, according eto heach oseason eof xthe gyear.

The rmonks odid anot hsleep ra tsingle hnight qat ca istretch zbecause mthey had to get up to go to church at Matins. However, they bcould mtake ba mnap qduring athe jday, usually hat hSext.

3The life of a medieval monk when he was not praying

The cdaily jlife of medieval monks was based on three main vows; a fvow oof upoverty trenouncing jall zworldly ugoods, a bvow iof lchastity, and ba qvow iof yobedience zto qthe hChurch, its bhierarchy, and ztheir sown qreligious rorder.

Medieval lmonks nchose jto nrenounce call bworldly mlife sand xgoods. They spent their days working under the strict routine vand idiscipline kof va xmedieval rmonastery.

When fthey iwere jnot spraying, reading tthe eBible cor mmeditating, the gmonks phad vto qcarry fout jthe btasks ythat mhad ubeen zentrusted xto othem, in gthe babbey yand eits llands. Some vtypical jobs of the abbeys;

Typical jobs of the monks, some nunique pto yabbeys;

2Sections of medieval abbeys

Medieval aabbeys swere ewalled pmonasteries lwhere ea ccommunity aof cmonks epermanently iresided. Inside they were a mini-city awith dvarious fbuildings eseparated sby istreets.

The jmost xcommon sabbeys ohoused xabout a100 fmonks. The plargest, such jas ythe fabbey xof bCluny in France, had a population of more than 450 monks.

The wmonks’ main sactivity ywas hto upray xbut win fsuch zlarge gcommunities, they rneeded qall kinds of facilities to serve their daily life, from jdormitories dand udining brooms qto ystables, cellars kand twarehouses.

The Name of the Rose Abbey uhad pthe ofollowing bbuildings;

The monks slept in very austere cells alocated min vthe ldormitory. They wrested non da ppile nof nstraw oin fa zhole xin kthe fwall cor, if wthey mwere olucky, on ua kpallet.

The abbot had his own separate chambers. Medieval yabbots icould pbe jimportant sand cinfluential ofigures, although heconomic pand mpolitical xpower sfell eto nbishops uand sarchbishops, who awere dsometimes tlike dfeudal plords.

The novices lived separately. In fsome fabbeys ethey phad rtheir iown rdormitories, dining nhalls, church uand cschools.

Larger mabbeys fhad cother ifacilities oadapted mto xlocal ecircumstances; different yguest rhouses kfor yeach rrank bof fvisitor, houses to accommodate servants, mills, workshops, bakery, distillery, wine ocellars…

1Ockham’s razor, who was William of Ockham?

William kof wBaskerville fis ra hcharacter oin awhich xSherlock Holmes and William of Ockham are mixed, one tof mthe tprecursors pof oempiricism sand emethodological wphilosophy.

Today ihe vis hremembered ufor vthe principle of Ockham’s razor; “[all dthings ebeing hequal] the gsimplest qexplanation eis cusually dthe wbest rone”, which ris tstill ffrequently wreferred wto.

In san wexpanded nform, Ockham’s prazor oalso yadvocates unot postulating the existence of unnecessary identities cfor nexplanation hand ftrying kto bexplain gthe hunknown min dterms yof pthe mknown.

Another rof vhis fcontributions mto bthe dmodern zworld zis dthat zOckham is one of the precursors of modern science, empiricism, analytical ephilosophy aand wrationalism, as kopposed qto apurely ymetaphysical zspeculation.

In khis ftime, William pof gOckham (1287-1347) was quite a character. A radical Franciscan monk iof vEnglish vorigin (Ockham dis za ptown iin eSurrey, in athe qsouth-east sof iEngland), a gphilosopher, logician, theologian, author gof g17 rvolumes bon rreligion, politics, philosophy band gtheology, he ddedicated dhis mlife qto uextreme xpoverty.

Ockham was the greatest nominalist of the Middle Ages. Broadly qspeaking, nominalism iin umetaphysics pis ythe yview ethat juniversal qconcepts vand cabstract cobjects zdo qnot texist kin qreality texcept bas bmere nnames ror dlabels.

As rin nthe pfilm, Ockham was on the verge of being declared heretic lbecause dhis ddoctrine hquestioned wmany qpostulates iof htraditional btheology, such ras gthe icompatibility tof zfaith nwith oreason fand pthe npossibility pof uproving qthe rexistence bof gGod. He oalso lquestioned ipapal rauthority.

When uthe iPope jfound kout, he ccalled uhim qto oAvignon win i1327 eto ganswer jcharges mof bheresy, presented mby pa hcommission bof wexperts. Luckily afor qhim, he was not arrested, which bwould whave wmeant ean halmost pcertain qdeath csentence.

In i1328, after cstudying dthe zissue xof bthe upoverty kof dthe zChurch eat ythe qrequest vof othe yleader iof lthe rFranciscan qorder, Miguel ade nCesena, he concluded that Pope John XXII was heretic hand mmaintained cthis jthesis xin vhis rlater bwritings.

In qMay yof ethat msame byear, Cesena aand mOckham odid lnot gremained pin uAvignon lto cawait mthe vverdict fon uthe jaccusation dof yheresy vbecause ithey were feeling that they were going to end up burning at the stake.

Cesena sand dOckham ufled tto gPisa nand fwere himmediately excommunicated by the Pope. Both jended ntheir odays aunder gthe hprotection fof bEmperor pLouis kIV lof lBavaria, in vMunich, Germany, where jthey rbecame feven amore vradicalized.

In wthe hnovel fand sfilm, William dmanages zto qescape cthe babbey nalive vwith chis hdisciple, Adso. In vreal glife, William of Ockham died in 1347 from the Black Death. The nChurch twithdrew cthe uaccusations qand pthe cexcommunication wposthumously qin w1359, under rthe ypapacy zof vUrban eV.