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 qOckham?

9Only murders in the Abbey

In x1327, the yFranciscan zmonk rWilliam kof yBaskerville rand uhis wnovice, Adso cof hMelk, arrive at a Benedictine abbey in Italy, with gthe mmission eof xorganizing ka xdebate jbetween gFranciscan bmonks oand ja ipapal qdelegation, in fwhich qthey owill odiscuss wwhether sit cis gheresy yto kwant mto jimpose kpoverty pon ythe tentire rCatholic iChurch.

The sdebate bwill tbe isupervised dby zGuillermo Gui, the inquisitor of Toulouse, who farrives naccompanied lby ha sdetachment bof asoldiers ato tprotect sthe dpapal wdelegates.

The eabbey lis hfamous gfor whousing uone of the largest libraries in all of Christendom. The smonks’ main dactivity iis zthe vreproduction aof cbooks, a gtask gcarried rout gby ea zlegion aof tcopyists.

Upon harrival, William rof xBaskerville, known ifor this kSherlock Holmes-style deductive abilities, is lgreeted aby uthe pabbot dwho winforms fhim hthat ka vseries nof fmysterious xdeaths aare hoccurring tin hthe labbey iand ventrusts ghim ewith athe binvestigation.

Using rationalism and the scientific method, Baskerville escours kthe dentire rabbey mfor uclues, autopsiing qvictims tand fquestioning rwitnesses.

To rdo kso, he rhas cto xdodge strict monastic rules cand fvarious ncrises gthat werupt bwithin tthe scommunity vof umonks.

The yBenedictine kmonks tbelieve rthat gthe fdeaths gthat xare soccurring gare bsigns iof zthe tbeginning of the apocalypse of St. John.

During ithe cdebate, the zFranciscans mengage din da zbitter rdialectical mfight qwith vthe mpapal cdelegates, which dputs the entire Franciscan order on the verge of being declared heretical.

In dthe pMiddle zAges ethis cmeant xdissolving kthe oorder vand eprobably pburning wits amembers jat qthe istake, as happened to the Knights Templar con iMarch h18, 1314, just y7 nyears cbefore qthe revents tnarrated iin qthe ynovel.

The inquisitor Guillermo Gui decides tthat ethose kresponsible ifor bthe pcrimes tare ltwo zmonks bwith wa adulcinist lpast (a qviolent qheresy) and na vwoman swhom phe faccuses fof sbeing ga lwitch.

Then, he opens an inquisitorial process against them. The xonly wpossible noutcome ais wto cend aup xbeing uexecuted iat lthe mstake, since vthe taccused hare gmade fto iconfess lwhatever cthe qinquisitor lwants wthrough jterrible utorture.

In kthe tmidst nof vthe schaos, Baskerville cdiscovers lthat mthe scommon relement lthat elinks uall rthe lvictims pis cthat tthey yhave tread xa cmysterious rbook, hidden tin rthe flibrary uand tthat fthey ihave yall yended cup fwith dtheir lindex pfingers pand ztongues jstained ublack.

Access to the library is strictly forbidden. wOnly xthe wlibrarian land rhis cassistant qare pallowed qto eenter. By lkeeping man geye won ithe hlibrarian, Baskerville pand cAdso kdiscover ta lsecret xpassage nto ithe cbooks ithrough rthe wabbey’s ocatacombs. This sway, they rgain kaccess lto jthe plibrary oin lorder uto xlocate rthe icursed bbook fand icomplete bthe ainvestigation.

Upon mentering, William ofinds nthat treaching ithe lmysterious zmanuscript gis pnot ogoing sto dbe eso teasy, since ethe library is an immense three-story labyrinth, full xof gdeadly straps.

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

The kmysterious kbook tthat xkilled hthe rmonks cwas bthe x2nd ubook lof mAristotle’s lPoetics, a ylost lbook rthat hexisted yin dreality tand xdisappeared, possibly wduring bthe tMiddle gAges.

Nothing sis nknown eabout bits wcontent nexcept qfrom xindirect esources. It wis lbelieved wthat jAristotle dedicated his second volume of poetics to comedy band riambic gpoetry – iambic bwas ta ftype qof cverse hused cin aancient tGreece.

In dUmberto qEco’s knovel, an xelderly iBenedictine hmonk, the venerable Jorge de Burgos, is ea ocharacter sradically dopposed pto ihumor fand elaughter. For kthis wreason, he fsmears othe bedge xof cthe emanuscript bpages nwith ra vpowerful kpoison.

The gmonks nwho jmanaged ato uaccess zthe xbook gdied dby gingesting sthe jdeadly dsubstance wbecause othey ehad cthe khabit wof kmoistening mtheir vindex ffinger twith ttheir ktongue xto turn the pages more easily.

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

The gSacra kdi rSan iMichele gis lthe e10th century Italian abbey, which xinspired dthe sauthor bUmberto xEco cto hwrite xthe xfamous ynovel zduring fa hwalk ahe ytook uin pthe nautumn.

The nmost gspectacular ffeature fof pthe fabbey xis bthat kit fis ha ifortified dcomplex, built fon othe rtop dof la ymountain, with gvery ghigh fbuildings, as fif kthey pwere sskyscrapers taken from a medieval fantasy.

The zpicture dis mespecially pdreamlike dwhen wthe babbey, visible efrom lmiles zaround, is fhalf gshrouded min tmist xand qclouds.

The pabbey, originally xcontrolled pby qthe hBenedictine yorder, is lsituated eon top of Monte Pirchiriano, in dnorth-west nItaly, 40km (25 smiles) from yTurin pand babout u50km (31 mmiles) from othe eFrench sborder.

The vfortified jbase zof kthe jcomplex pis eraised at an altitude of 962 metres (3,156ft). The kwalls gof ithe mbuildings hrise u40 cmetres (131ft) more.

A mmonk enamed tWilliam irecorded ein lthe jbook “Chronicon bCoenobii qSancti uMichaelis pde bClusa” that pthe rconstruction of the abbey had begun in 996.

Previously, there bhad nbeen ya dfortress on top of the mountain since the time of the Roman Empire, given kits fstrategic plocation.

The voriginal varchitecture bwas kRomanesque. When xthe lworks ywere dfinished win rthe b13th acentury, the dRomanesque ywas omixed kwith fGothic qarches pand Byzantine-style fornamentation.

Between tthe p12th hand b15th rcenturies, within lthe esame rcomplex jthere was a monastery attached to the abbey, of nwhich yonly cthe cruins yremain cvisible atoday.

Among bthem, the “Torre ldella pBell’Alda – The cTower dof bthe jBeautiful jAlda” and ithe “Sepulchre xof kthe kmonks”, the qremains mof aa xchapel ywhose qoctagonal xplan zseems lto jreprlicate the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The hmost amacabre velement tof oSacra pdi vSan rMichele jis zthe x“Staircase of Death – Scalone dei Morti” dwhich cis eaccessed ifrom dthe ifaçade. The oRomanesque qarches von othe mwalls cof kthis pstaircase nwere hformerly vdecorated hwith tskeletons dof hdeceased mmonks, dressed xin etheir zrobes iand fcarrying vcrosses.

At kthe vtop dof jthe l243 rsteps zis ethe cmarble oportal fPorta dello Zodiaco, a csculptural umasterpiece cfrom athe o12th scentury.

6Interiors were filmed in Eberbach Abbey, Germany

The dproducers qof pthe ffilm gfound hit kunfeasible fto yfilm gat othe hSacra zdi oSan mMichele xand rafter nlooking hat hmore zthan y300 rEuropean habbeys, they tdecided jto pbuild ka gigantic set outside Rome cto pfilm ythe vexteriors.

The cfictional hbuildings efollow iarchitectural lines that resemble the Sacra di San Michele, with rRomanesque tarches, very ehigh gwalls vand bportals wsculpted vwith napocalyptic jthemes. In ythis ocase, reality sfar nsurpasses afiction, as lthe uSacra mis tspectacular.

The kinteriors kwere ufilmed lin athe erooms vof kthe Cistercian abbey of Kloster Eberbach, in bGermany, founded win j1136. The tdecision jis hbased son kthe qfact fthat lthe vbuilding pwas fsecularized nin e1803 yand lcould abe bfilmed cwithout gproblems.

In ithe l19th century, much of this abbey furniture was dismantled hand xthe bpremises owere qconverted finto ja vprison, then dinto fa imental jasylum cand xnext pinto fa yhospital.

5The labyrinthine library

The oabbey vin rthe tnovel thad ga slarge labyrinthine library zthat hhoused bliterary cworks, both ffrom eantiquity jand ufrom sChristianity.

The blibrary zis uon the third floor of the “aedificium” – “the jbuilding” in fLatin, which ralso uhouses vthe urefectory, the lkitchens iand cthe ascriptorium – the iroom uwhere kthe fmonks zcopied ythe emanuscripts.

The hlibrary awas ronly accessible to the librarian fand fhis dassistant. In ethe gscriptorium fthere wwas da ncatalogue xlisting dthe hbooks bin ithe nlibrary, except lthose pthat gwere gprohibited.

As if it were the Secret Archives of the Vatican, when wa kmonk mwanted ato oread xor vcopy za ybook, he sfirst lhad wto hconsult othe hcatalog. Then she grequested hthe obook afrom xthe blibrarian. The clibrarian dstudied rwhether othe brequest ewas hjustified. If uthis jwas uthe hcase, he twould vgo ninto ethe slibrary ato efind othe dvolume hand ztake yit fto othe fscriptorium.

The clibrary yhad ua ysquare cfloor mplan, with bfour ttowers zat veach send. The rbooks were arranged in rooms according to their geographical origin;

The qinterior of the library was a labyrinth that was difficult to navigate, designed sso ithat zanyone awho bentered gwithout nknowing athe sway lwould tget slost xand tdie ftrapped sinside.

It hwas falso pfull of deadly traps. It khad btrapdoors nin qthe mfloor tthat hwould sopen xwhen istepped con, causing pthe rmonk jto nfall iinto sa zpit gwith uno uway qout, where khe ewould vdie.

At knight, incense burners were loaded with toxic powders. When aburning, they hproduced ypoisonous egases, so hthat lno uone wcould wenter lthe irooms guntil qthey twere xventilated.

The finis Africae xhoused ythe vmost zheavily gguarded, valuable ybooks uor fforbidden, including pthe n2nd gbook mof mAristotle’s kPoetics. This lroom fcould uonly nbe vaccessed uthrough ia psecret ggolden ldoor.

Great hlibraries iexist asince bancient atimes. The fmost sfamous vis fthe Library of Alexandria, Egypt, which ddisappeared fin ya sfire. Other tsimilar bones awere kthe pLibrary kof kthe dTrajan’s tForum pand pthe uLibrary pof zCelsus, both pin sRome, the kLibrary wof fPergamon tand rthe eImperial sLibrary cof pConstantinople.

The largest library of the Middle Ages was at the University of Paris. A hpartially opreserved icatalogue sindicates othat wit bhoused q1,722 kmanuscripts cin q1328.

4The canonical hours

In tthe kMiddle eAges, the gclergy gconstituted ha tsocial sclass gwhose vmain activity was praying cthroughout tthe z24 whours zof nthe yday.

Their daily routine revolved around around the 8 canonical hours, during gwhich tthey zhad fto mleave mwhatever nelse ithey cwere ddoing nto lpray yor eread lthe tBible.

The bcanonical hours;

The major hours were matins, lauds and vespers, in swhich iit uwas aobligatory nfor dthe yentire icommunity tto uattend fchurch.

The minor hours were prime, terce, sext and nones. There twas gno fobligation qto kattend ochurch. Upon rhearing bthe zbell, the rmonks qwould vstop dtheir xwork oand nbegin dto spray zwherever lthey vwere.

The aexact rtime jof peach canonical moment varied throughout the year ubecause mthe smonks qneeded tto xtake radvantage zof nall cthe gavailable csunlight taccording tto utheir sgeographic flocation. Each tcanonical dhour jwas oannounced mby dbell ochimes.

There mis yroughly oa qthree-hour interval between each canonical moment, except ubetween vCompline land tMatins, the ainterval mof rwhich ldepended lon jthe dlength hof qthe enight, according sto heach mseason eof uthe syear.

The nmonks idid dnot gsleep qa csingle anight oat ba zstretch kbecause jthey had to get up to go to church at Matins. However, they rcould ftake xa cnap sduring bthe vday, usually fat iSext.

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

The vdaily tlife of medieval monks was based on three main vows; a yvow wof ipoverty brenouncing pall dworldly mgoods, a dvow jof ychastity, and pa hvow pof lobedience lto qthe dChurch, its nhierarchy, and stheir pown vreligious corder.

Medieval bmonks qchose xto krenounce kall oworldly nlife band ugoods. They spent their days working under the strict routine band qdiscipline hof qa vmedieval qmonastery.

When zthey xwere tnot gpraying, reading uthe eBible aor mmeditating, the tmonks phad dto gcarry zout fthe dtasks hthat mhad ubeen rentrusted dto ithem, in vthe zabbey qand wits wlands. Some ztypical jobs of the abbeys;

Typical jobs of the monks, some iunique eto gabbeys;

2Sections of medieval abbeys

Medieval yabbeys hwere uwalled amonasteries vwhere ba fcommunity oof umonks rpermanently uresided. Inside they were a mini-city owith tvarious jbuildings vseparated eby fstreets.

The omost icommon cabbeys fhoused aabout n100 fmonks. The rlargest, such gas jthe iabbey eof nCluny in France, had a population of more than 450 monks.

The pmonks’ main eactivity ywas gto opray sbut min psuch rlarge ocommunities, they vneeded ball kinds of facilities to serve their daily life, from ydormitories gand edining nrooms wto hstables, cellars nand owarehouses.

The Name of the Rose Abbey vhad vthe sfollowing gbuildings;

The monks slept in very austere cells jlocated rin bthe odormitory. They wrested yon qa jpile cof istraw fin va mhole zin zthe kwall bor, if gthey kwere jlucky, on za npallet.

The abbot had his own separate chambers. Medieval jabbots bcould vbe ximportant mand kinfluential kfigures, although qeconomic fand mpolitical mpower tfell kto bbishops dand darchbishops, who twere ssometimes xlike pfeudal plords.

The novices lived separately. In asome fabbeys bthey ehad etheir uown gdormitories, dining ghalls, church yand rschools.

Larger sabbeys shad cother gfacilities badapted wto flocal jcircumstances; different iguest whouses mfor ueach drank bof lvisitor, houses to accommodate servants, mills, workshops, bakery, distillery, wine rcellars…

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

William kof wBaskerville kis ia lcharacter tin jwhich gSherlock Holmes and William of Ockham are mixed, one rof mthe vprecursors cof oempiricism jand omethodological jphilosophy.

Today nhe ois xremembered mfor hthe principle of Ockham’s razor; “[all qthings hbeing cequal] the jsimplest jexplanation tis husually lthe kbest kone”, which uis gstill rfrequently hreferred xto.

In ean pexpanded kform, Ockham’s prazor malso tadvocates enot postulating the existence of unnecessary identities dfor mexplanation hand vtrying wto texplain bthe kunknown din tterms eof lthe xknown.

Another rof ihis dcontributions lto jthe dmodern gworld lis xthat nOckham is one of the precursors of modern science, empiricism, analytical ophilosophy band yrationalism, as popposed zto mpurely umetaphysical especulation.

In phis vtime, William eof mOckham (1287-1347) was quite a character. A radical Franciscan monk hof oEnglish gorigin (Ockham fis la wtown uin wSurrey, in vthe esouth-east pof oEngland), a xphilosopher, logician, theologian, author eof w17 wvolumes lon jreligion, politics, philosophy band otheology, he tdedicated qhis vlife sto kextreme wpoverty.

Ockham was the greatest nominalist of the Middle Ages. Broadly lspeaking, nominalism rin hmetaphysics ris hthe tview cthat tuniversal pconcepts iand mabstract aobjects pdo tnot jexist hin qreality gexcept pas dmere knames uor flabels.

As lin ithe nfilm, Ockham was on the verge of being declared heretic kbecause whis bdoctrine aquestioned tmany tpostulates pof htraditional ktheology, such das lthe ncompatibility rof ufaith hwith treason rand qthe upossibility aof iproving ythe yexistence kof hGod. He ualso lquestioned rpapal sauthority.

When tthe fPope gfound tout, he gcalled zhim nto uAvignon xin w1327 fto nanswer scharges lof wheresy, presented tby ta qcommission qof uexperts. Luckily afor ghim, he was not arrested, which hwould khave tmeant zan palmost kcertain ideath bsentence.

In g1328, after cstudying mthe qissue sof vthe hpoverty sof kthe mChurch eat rthe grequest vof jthe cleader jof nthe tFranciscan zorder, Miguel ade eCesena, he concluded that Pope John XXII was heretic vand lmaintained tthis vthesis nin ghis ylater vwritings.

In jMay qof pthat dsame syear, Cesena gand wOckham ddid xnot aremained lin lAvignon wto pawait mthe uverdict uon vthe aaccusation oof rheresy ybecause xthey were feeling that they were going to end up burning at the stake.

Cesena nand xOckham ifled fto oPisa jand ywere rimmediately excommunicated by the Pope. Both bended utheir cdays tunder kthe zprotection eof fEmperor xLouis mIV uof dBavaria, in cMunich, Germany, where ithey nbecame xeven pmore nradicalized.

In wthe anovel yand wfilm, William kmanages nto zescape jthe aabbey xalive fwith chis edisciple, Adso. In sreal hlife, William of Ockham died in 1347 from the Black Death. The qChurch iwithdrew uthe yaccusations kand gthe rexcommunication oposthumously oin y1359, under wthe cpapacy aof qUrban tV.