Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life...
...my hair now white...
...I prepare to leave, on this parchment, my testimony...
...as to the wondrous and terrible events that I witnessed in my youth...
...towards the end of the year of our Lord, 1 32 7.
May God grant me the wisdom and grace...
...to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place...
...in a remote abbey in the dark north of Italy.
An abbey whose name it seems even now...
...pious and prudent to omit.
May my hand not tremble now that I start to relive the past...
...and revive the feelings of uneasiness that oppressed my heart...
...as we entered the battlements.
Should we tell him?
No.
He will look in the wrong places.
But...
...what if he should learn it of his own accord?
You overestimate his talents, my lord abbot.
There is only one authority capable of investigating such matters.
The Holy lnquisition.
What is your opinion, Venerable Jorge?
Dear brethren...
...l leave such worldly matters to younger men.
Adso.
-Yes, master? -ln order to command nature...
...one must first learn to obey it.
Return to the forecourts, get the edificium on your left...
...enter the quadrangle on your right, you'll find the place you need.
Behind the third arch.
But you told me you'd never been to this abbey.
When we arrived, l saw a brother making for the spot in some haste.
l noticed, however, that he emerged more slowly...
...with an air of contentment.
Thank you, master.
On behalf of the Benedictine order, l am honored to welcome you...
...and your Franciscan brothers to our abbey.
The other delegates, they have arrived?
Ubertino de Casale has been here for some weeks.
The others are due tomorrow.
You must be very tired after your long journey.
No.
Not particularly.
l trust you're not in need of anything?
No. Thank you.
Well....
Well, then l bid you peace.
l'm sorry to see one of your brethren has recently been gathered unto God.
Yes, a terrible loss.
Brother Adelmo was one of our finest illuminators.
-Not Adelmo of Otranto. -You knew him?
No, but l knew and admired his work.
His humor and comic images...
...were almost infamous.
-But he was said to be a young man. -Oh, yes.
Yes, very young indeed.
-An accident, no doubt? -Yes.
Yes, as you say, an accident.
Well, that is, l....
Brother William...
...may l speak with you candidly?
You seem most anxious to do so.
When l heard you were coming to our abbey...
...l thought it was an answer to my prayers.
''Here,'' l said, ''is a man who has knowledge, both of the human spirit...
...and of the wiles of the evil one.''
The fact is, Adelmo's death has caused much spiritual unease among my flock.
This is my novice, Adso...
...the youngest son of the Baron of Melk.
Please do continue.
We found the body after a hailstorm...
...horribly mutilated, dashed against a rock at the foot of the tower...
...under a window, which was....
How shall l say this?
-Which was-- -Which was found closed.
-Somebody told you. -Had it been found open...
...you would have concluded that he'd fallen.
Brother William...
...the window cannot be opened...
...nor was the glass shattered...
...nor is there any access to the roof above.
Oh, l see.
And because you can offer no natural explanation...
...your monks suspect the presence of a supernatural force within these walls.
That's why l need the counsel...
...of an acute man such as you, Brother William.
Acute in uncovering...
...and prudent, if necessary...
...in covering up...
...before the papal delegates arrive.
Surely you know, my lord, l no longer deal in such matters.
l am indeed reluctant to burden you with my dilemma...
...but unless l can put the minds of my flock at rest...
...l will have no alternative but to summon the help of the lnquisition.
Adso!
That is Ubertino de Casale...
...one of the great spiritual leaders of our order.
Come.
Many revere him as a living saint...
...but others would have him burned as a heretic.
His book on the poverty of the clergy isn't favored reading in papal palaces.
So now he lives in hiding like an outlaw.
Fellow Franciscans...
...you must leave this place at once.
The devil is roaming this abbey.
Ubertino...
...it's William.
William of Baskerville.
William...?
No.
William is dead.
William, my son...
...forgive me.
We had lost trace of you for so long.
l tried very hard to be forgotten.
When we heard of your troubles...
...l prayed to our virgin for a miracle.
Then your prayers met with a favorable response.
This is my young novice, Adso of Melk.
His father has entrusted me with his education and welfare.
You must get him out of here!
Have you not heard, the devil is hurling beautiful boys out of windows?
There was something...
...feminine...
...something diabolical...
...about the young one who died.
He had the eyes of a girl...
...seeking intercourse with the devil.
Beware of this place.
The beast is still among us.
l can sense him now, here...
...within these very walls.
l'm afraid, William...
...for you, for me...
...for the outcome of this debate.
My son.
The times we live in.
But let us not frighten...
...our young friend here.
She's beautiful, is she not?
When the female...
...by nature, so perverse...
...becomes sublime by holiness...
...then she can be the noblest vehicle of grace.
-l don't like this place. -Really?
l find it most stimulating. Come.
Adso, we must not allow ourselves to be influenced...
...by irrational rumors of the Antichrist.
Let us instead exercise our brains...
...and try to solve this tantalizing conundrum.
My master trusted Aristotle, the Greek philosophers...
...and the faculties of his own remarkable, logical intelligence.
Unhappily, my fears were not mere phantoms of my youthful imagination.
A rather dark end for such a brilliant illuminator.
Another generous donation by the church to the poor.
Now, what if it wasn't that tower that he fell from...
...but somewhere over there, and then the body rolled all the way down here?
Adso?
No devil needed anymore.
Yes. More blood here.
That's where he fell from. He jumped.
Adso, are you paying attention?
Yes. He jumped.
He jumped? You mean that he committed suicide?
Yes. Why else would someone go up there at night in a hailstorm?
-Certainly not to admire the landscape. -No. Perhaps....
Perhaps someone murdered him.
And then toiled all the way up there with the body?
Easier to get rid of it through that sluice gate they pour charity through.
No, no. My dear Adso...
...it's elementary.
Suicide.
Do you think that this...
...is a place abandoned by God?
Have you ever known a place where God would have felt at home?
We praise almighty God...
...that there are no grounds for suspecting an evil spirit among us...
...either of this world or another.
We praise our Lord that the debate...
...which we are so greatly honored to host...
...may now proceed without a shadow of fear.
We also praise the Almighty for sending us Brother William of Baskerville...
...whose experience in previous duties...
...although onerous to him...
...has been of such service to us here.
May serenity and spiritual peace...
...reign once more in our hearts.
Master?
lf l may ask, what...
...''onerous duties'' ...
...was the abbot talking about?
Were you not always a monk?
Even monks have pasts, Adso.
Now, do try to sleep.
l just....
Yes, master.
This one, l grant you, did not commit suicide.
-Water! -Here.
l am to blame.
Had l not been so eager to believe your convenient explanation...
...this might have been prevented.
l am absolutely convinced that Brother Adelmo took his own life.
-Now, whether-- -Then the hail....
Whether this death is connected in any way with it, l intend to find--
--after the hailstorm...
...with the second trumpet...
...the sea became blood...
...and behold...
...here is blood.
-The prophecy of the apocalypse! -The third trumpet.
A burning star...
...will fall in fountains of water.
Do not squander! The last seven days!
Grated stem of waterwort for treating diarrhea.
And as for onions...
...administered in small quantities, warm and moist...
...they help prolong the male erection...
...in those who have not taken our vows, naturally.
Do you find many circumstances...
...in which you apply arsenic, Brother Severinus?
Yes, indeed. lt is a most effective remedy for nervous disorders...
...if taken as a compound in small doses.
And what of not-so-small doses?
Death.
What was this man's function here?
He was our finest translator of Greek...
...entirely devoted to the works of Aristotle.
Was he on friendly terms with the handsome young Adelmo?
Oh, indeed so. They worked together in the scriptorium.
But in a brotherly way, you understand. Not like....
l mean, flesh can be tempted according to nature...
...or against nature.
And they were not of the latter disposition...
...if you ascertain my meaning.
Watch out for the dracul who cometh in futurum to gnaw on your anima!
Ugly con Salvatore, eh?
My little brother, penitenziagite.
You said, ''penitenziagite.'' l heard you.
Master?
What language was he speaking?
All languages, and none.
And what was the word you both kept mentioning?
Penitenziagite.
-What does it mean? -lt means the hunchback, undoubtedly...
...was once a heretic.
Penitenziagite was the rallying cry of the Dolcinites.
Dolcinites? Who were they, master?
Those who believed in the poverty of Christ.
So do we Franciscans.
But they also declared that everyone must be poor.
So they slaughtered the rich.
You see, Adso...
...the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy...
...is all too brief.
Well, then, could he not have killed the translator?
No. No. Fat bishops and wealthy priests...
...were more to the taste of the Dolcinites.
Hardly a specialist of Aristotle.
But, yes, you're right. We must keep an open mind.
We are very fortunate to have such snowy ground here.
lt's the parchment on which the criminal unwittingly writes his autograph.
Now, what do you read from these footprints here?
That they are...
-...twice as deep as the others. -Good, Adso.
And thus we may conclude...?
-Well, that the man was very heavy. -Precisely.
And why was he very heavy?
Because...
-...he was very fat? -Or because he was being burdened...
...with the weight of another man.
Let us commit the autograph of this sole...
...to our memory.
But the footprints lead away from the jar...
...in this direction.
Oh, you turnip, Adso. You're discounting the possibility...
...that the man was walking backwards, dragging the body thus....
Hence, the furrows created by the heels.
Now, where did the erudite Greek translator...
...meet the anonymous author of his death?
Brother librarian.
Perhaps you will permit us to examine the work of the two unfortunates...
...so distressingly gathered unto God.
Your request is most unusual.
As are the circumstances of their deaths.
Brother Adelmo sat there.
Thank you.
A donkey teaching the scriptures to the bishops.
The pope is a fox.
The abbot is a monkey.
He really had a daring talent...
...for comic images.
l trust my words did not offend you, Brother William...
...but l heard persons laughing at laughable things.
You Franciscans, however, belong to an order where merriment...
-...is viewed with indulgence. -Yes, it's true.
St. Francis was much disposed to laughter.
Laughter is a devilish wind...
...which deforms the lineaments of the face...
...and makes men look like monkeys.
Monkeys do not laugh.
Laughter is particular to man.
As is sin.
-Christ never laughed. -Can we be so sure?
There is nothing in the scriptures to say that he did.
There's nothing in the scriptures to say he didn't.
Even the saints have employed comedy...
...to ridicule the enemies of the faith.
For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurus into the boiling water...
...he complained his bath was too cold. The sultan put his hand in, scalded it.
A saint immersed in boiling water does not play childish tricks.
He restrains his cries and suffers for the truth.
And yet, Aristotle devoted his second book of Poetics...
...to comedy as an instrument of truth.
-You have read this work? -No, of course not.
-lt's been lost for many centuries. -No, it has not. lt was never written.
Because providence doesn't want futile things glorified.
-Oh, that l must contest-- -Enough!
This abbey's overshadowed by grief...
...yet you would intrude on our sorrow with idle banter!
Forgive me, Venerable Jorge. My remarks were truly out of place.
-Which was the Greek translator's desk? -This one.
Come, Adso.
Well, Adso, what did you deduce from that visit?
That we are not meant to laugh in there.
But did you notice how few books there were on the scriptorium shelves?
All those scriveners, copyists, translators, researchers, thinkers....
But where are the multitude of books that they need for their work?
And for which this abbey is famed?
Where are the books?
-Are you testing me, master? -What do you mean?
Well, with all due respect...
...it seems that whenever you ask me a question, you already have the answer.
-Do you know where the books are? -No.
But l'll wager my faith that that tower contains something other than air.
Did you notice that little door the librarian closed as we came in?
-Yes. -Could that lead to the library?
Master! Master, quick! l have him!
-Stop! Enough! -Master, he tried to kill us!
Salvatore!
Please, my lord, don't talk to the abbot about his past.
He's innocent of the deaths in this abbey. l swear it.
Brother, we need you. My price is some information.
I could not comprehend why my master so quickly dismissed...
...my suspicions of the heretical hunchback...
...and why it was so urgent that we visit the tower.
I assumed he could not resist the temptation...
...to penetrate the library and look at the books.
No lock. Just as l thought, it must be bolted from the inside.
How do we get in?
Well, obviously, there must be another entrance.
Let us see what the moon-faced assistant librarian...
...was trying to conceal from us this morning, shall we?
Tiny Greek letters, perhaps written by an ant with inky feet.
Ah, yes.
Written with lemon juice.
Sagittarius.
The sun.
Mercury.
Scorpio.
lt's some zodiacal code giving directions, but to where?
Hey! Who's there?
Who's there?
-My magnifying glasses! -They were on that book.
You go that way.
Come on out, you little bitch.
l know you are here. l can smell you.
What's the matter with you, huh? Are you afraid of me?
l'll find you.
Who was she?
Who was this creature that rose like the dawn...
...was bewitching as the moon, radiant as the sun...
...terrible as an army poised for battle?
Good evening, Salvatore.
This is where you catch them?
You see, they are piu grasso. Bigger, eh?
You....
You eat them?
You like?
Thank you, no. No.
As you're a good Christian, you must tell me this.
So Adelmo gave the parchment to Berengar.
No, no.
To the translo.... The transla--
Translator! Venantius, the black monk.
-And what happened then? -Then....
Master! ln here, quick. l found another one.
Where are your wits, boy? Have you ever met anyone...
...with a rib cage large enough to accommodate a heart of that dimension?
No.
lt is the heart of an ox.
One of the monks probably gave it to that peasant girl...
...in exchange for her favors.
Girl? Well, what...?
The one l saw scuttling out of here.
-He must have been a very ugly monk. -Why ugly?
lf he'd been young and beautiful...
...she would no doubt have blessed him with her carnal favors for nothing.
ln any event, whatever happened in this dreadful kitchen...
...has no bearing on our investigations.
Salvatore convinced me that Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian...
...is the key to the whole enigma. What did you say?
-Nothing, master. -Good.
Master?
There's something l must tell you.
l know.
Then will you hear my confession?
Well, l'd rather you told me first as a friend.
Master.
Have you...
...ever been...
...in love?
ln love? Yeah. Many times.
-You were? -Yes, of course.
Aristotle, Ovid, Virgil....
No, no, no. l meant with a--
Are you not confusing love with lust?
Am l?
l don't know.
l want only her own good.
l want her to be happy.
l want to save her from her poverty.
-Oh, dear. -Why ''oh, dear''?
You are in love.
ls that bad?
For a monk, it does present certain problems.
But doesn't St. Thomas Aquinas praise love above all other virtues?
Yes. The love of God, Adso. The love of God.
And the love of woman?
Of woman, Thomas Aquinas knew precious little.
But the scriptures are very clear.
Proverbs warns us, ''Woman takes possession of a man's precious soul.''
While Ecclesiastes tells us, ''More bitter than death is woman.''
Yes, but--
-What do you think, master? -Well....
Of course, l don't have the benefit of your experience.
But l find it difficult to convince myself...
...that God would have introduced such a foul being into creation...
...without endowing her with some virtues.
How peaceful life would be without love, Adso.
How safe.
How tranquil.
And how dull.
How beautiful. Lord, you have guided our steps...
...to this refuge of spiritual peace...
...because you wish for reconciliation as much as we Franciscans.
-Let us go, brothers. -Thy will be done, O Lord.
-Amen. -Amen.
Brother Berengar?
He's probably hiding somewhere...
...with the book and my magnifying glasses.
Brother Berengar.
Master, look. The door.
Brother Malachia. l was just looking for your assistant, Brother Berengar.
-ls he here? -No.
Oh, l see.
-Do you know where we might find him? -No.
-ls he perhaps upstairs in the library? -No.
l am curious to see the library for myself.
-May l do so? -No.
Why not?
lt is a strict rule of the abbot that no one is permitted...
...to enter the abbey library other than myself and my assistant.
l see.
Thank you again.
Maybe something's happened to him.
-Maybe we'll find him in water. -What?
The third trumpet, master, as Ubertino said.
-The book of Revelation. -That is not the book we're after.
You call this a chicken, do you? lt looks more like a sparrow.
Welcome to our abbey, Brother Michele, and to your fellow Franciscan delegates.
Hey, you, paesano! Go! You get in line like the others. Go!
-Unhand me! -Salvatore, let him go.
This is Cuthbert of Winchester, one of our most esteemed Franciscan guests.
Come, Your Grace. We have a most urgent matter to discuss.
The abbot and his colleagues seem convinced...
...that the devil is at work within these walls.
He is.
The only evidence l see of the devil...
...is everyone's desire to see him at work.
What if Ubertino is right and you are wrong?
Don't forget this debate is crucial to us all.
We suspect the pope wants to crush our order.
Yes, and declare us all heretics.
l only have one brother to question, and the entire matter is resolved.
William, we place our trust in you.
Pray God you do not abuse it.
Brother William.
Did you find a book in Greek?
No.
l was right.
So was the book of Revelation.
-We must talk at once. -lndeed, we must.
And l have much to tell.
Just as soon as he and l have examined this corpse.
Lime leaves in the bath are always used to alleviate pain.
-He was left-handed. -Yes, yes.
Brother Berengar was inverted in many ways.
Are there other left-handed brothers in the abbey here?
None that l know of.
lnk stains.
He did not write with his tongue, l presume.
-A few lines of Greek. -Yes.
Written by Venantius.
Some random notes from the book he was reading just before he died.
Do you see how the calligraphy changes?
From this point on, he was dying.
And what, my lord, do you conclude from that?
A smudge of blue paint.
Yes, but a unique smudge of blue...
...blended by your finest illuminator, Brother Adelmo...
...who possessed this parchment before Venantius.
And how do we know that? Because those random notes...
...overrun Adelmo's blue smudge, and not vice versa.
Brother William, this abbey is enshrouded in a terrifying mystery.
Yet l detect nothing in your obscure dissertation...
...that sheds any light upon it.
Light.
Someone was at great pains to conceal a secret of the first magnitude.
Now, the calligraphy is, without question, left-handed.
And the only left-handed member of your community is...
...or rather was, Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian.
Now, what kind of secret knowledge would he have been privy to?
l have the feeling that you're about to tell me.
Books. Restricted books.
Spiritually dangerous books.
Everyone here knew of the assistant librarian's passion for handsome boys.
When the beautiful Adelmo wanted to read such a forbidden book...
...Berengar offered Adelmo the key to its whereabouts...
...enciphered on that parchment...
-...in exchange for unnatural caresses. -Enough, Brother William!
Adelmo agreed and duly submitted to Berengar's lustful advances.
Afterwards, wracked by remorse, he wandered...
...weeping and desperate in the graveyard, where he met the Greek translator.
-How could you know this? -There was a witness.
The hunchback...
...who saw Adelmo giving this parchment to Venantius.
Then running towards the small tower and hurling himself out of the window.
The night of my arrival, while Berengar punished his sinful flesh...
... Venantius, helped by the coded instructions on the parchment...
...made his way into the forbidden library and found the book.
He took it back to his desk in the scriptorium and began to read it.
After scribbling down those few mysterious quotations...
...he died with a black stain on his finger.
The assistant librarian discovered the body...
...and dragged it down to the pigpens to avert suspicion falling on him.
But he left his autograph behind.
The book remained on the translator's desk.
Berengar returned there last night and read it.
Soon after, overcome by some agonizing pain...
...he tried to take a soothing bath with lime leaves and drowned.
He, too, had a blackened finger.
All three died because of a book which kills...
...or for which men will kill.
l therefore urge you to grant me access to the library.
Brother William!
Your pride blinds you.
By idolizing reason...
...you fail to see what is obvious to everyone in this abbey.
Thank you, Brother William.
We are mindful of your efforts...
...but l should now ask you...
...to refrain from further investigations.
Happily, there will be someone arriving with the papal delegation...
...who is well-versed in the wiles of the evil one.
A man, l believe, you know only too well.
Bernardo Gui...
...of the lnquisition.