The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is one of the best-selling novels of all time. It’s 1980 publication was quickly followed by a Hollywood adaptation. As a work of historical fiction, where monks are on the trail of a murderer, with a possibly theological motive, under the cloud of great turmoil within the church, building to a thrilling conclusion, it contains a great deal that will appeal to new readers.  

Adso of Melk, a Benedictine monk, now an old man, begins the task of writing down his recollection of the strange events that took place over a few days in his youth.

Having reached the end of my poor sinner’s life, my hair now white, I grow old as the world does, waiting to be lost in the bottomless pit of silent and deserted divinity, sharing in the light of angelic intelligences; confined now with my heavy, ailing body in this cell in the dear monastery of Melk, I prepare to leave on this parchment my testimony as to the wondrous and terrible events that I happened to observe in my youth, now repeated verbatim all I saw and heard, without venturing to seek a design, as if to leave to those who will come after (if the Antichrist has not come first) signs of signs, so that the prayer of deciphering may be exercised on them.

It was 1327 and for more than a decade secular and religious power in Europe had been in turmoil. Rome was an increasingly problematic location to reside and so Pope Clement V moved the Papal Seat to Avignon. Two men – Louis IV ‘the Bavarian’ and his cousin Frederick ‘the Fair’ were both elected Holy Roman Emperors. Louis eventually defeats Frederick in battle only to find himself excommunicated by Pope John XXII.

Even within the Church there is conflict as monastic orders find themselves in theological dispute with the Church. It is in the attempt to resolve one of these disputes that a meeting has been arranged on the neutral territory of a small Benedictine abbey in northern Italy. Perched atop steep cliffs above the snow line, the isolated abbey will host a discussion between representatives of Pope John XXII and the Franciscans on their disagreements over apostolic poverty.

Adso is attending the disputation as the assistant of William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar and former inquisitor. Adso could hardly have a better man to be his mentor. William is very learned for his time. He is an enthusiastic book reader with a curious mind who believes a good Christian can learn from infidels as well. He is a futurist with an optimistic belief in the power of machines and human ingenuity.

[…] there are two forms of magic. There is a magic that is the work of the Devil and which aims at man’s downfall through artifices of which it is not licit to speak. But there is a magic that is divine, where God’s knowledge is made manifest through the knowledge of man, and it serves to transform nature, and one of its ends is to prolong man’s very life. And this is holy magic, to which the learned must devote themselves more and more, not only to discover new things but also to rediscover many secrets of nature that divine wisdom had revealed to the Hebrews, the Greeks, to other ancient peoples, and even, today, to the infidels (and I cannot tell you all the wonderful things on optics and the science of vision to be read in the books of the infidels!). And of all this learning Christian knowledge must regain possession, taking it from the pagans and the infidels tamquam ab iniustic possessoribus.’

William and Adso arrive at the abbey and settle into their room. The Abbot comes to greet William whose reputation for wisdom precedes him. The Abbot sees William’s arrival as fortunate timing as a problem has arisen that he would like William to help solve.

Adelmo of Otrano, a monk and master illustrator, has been found dead at the foot of a cliff below the Aedificium – the fortified tower that dominates a corner of the abbey. William quickly deduces that suicide has been ruled out and murder is suspected. The murderer would have to be a monk since no others are permitted inside the Aedificium and it is locked at night when the murder took place.

[…] if anything further were to happen, the papal envoys would suspect a plot against them. And so there were only two solutions. Either William discovered the murderer before the arrival of the legation […] or else the Pope’s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought, to place the Abbey under close surveillance during the course of the discussions.

The Abbot tells William that he may question the monks. He may move freely around the abbey. But he may not enter the library on the top floor of the Aedificium. The library is one of the best to be found but access is strictly limited to the librarian and his understudy. The rule is to protect those unable to distinguish truth from falsehood contained in those books.

William and Adso are quick to begin their investigation into the death of Adelmo. They meet Severinus, the herbalist, who has a great knowledge of plants and their effects and has his own private laboratory. It is knowledge he admits is dangerous in the wrong hands and should be protected.

They meet Nicholas of Morimondo, the glacier, who shares William’s interest in new technology and the potential for lost knowledge to be rediscovered. But also believes in the dangers both of knowledge and of withholding knowledge.

Severinus and Nicholas point William and Adso towards those who were Adelmo’s friends and share the strange rumours they have heard concerning thems.

They visit Adelmo’s workspace and examine the windows of the Scriptorium from where he must have fallen. Here, William is astounded by the strange illustrations Adelmo was working on. They meet the librarian, Malachi of Hildesheim, and ask about the elusive method for listing books in the library.

William knows better than to proceed with unchecked assumptions. Although the Abbot had ruled out suicide, and this may be because of knowledge he learned through confession and cannot share, William believes the possibility should be considered. By the end of their first day at the abbey, having spoken to several people and examined the relevant locations, William is leaning towards suicide. It fits all the evidence while requiring fewer assumptions.

Yet, the abbey is host to other mysteries and secrets, particularly around the Aedificium and its library. William and Adso have interesting encounters with three men said to be Adelmo’s closest friends. Adelmo seems to have had a strange relationship with Berengar of Arundel, the assistant librarian. Jorge of Burgos, an older blind monk who takes a much stricter view than most on art, knowledge and sin engages with William on the moral propriety of artful depictions and laughter. William and Adso met both Berengar and Jorge with a third man, Venantius of Salvemec, when examining Adelmo’s work. The tension and animosity between the three did not go unnoticed.

On the morning of the second day, the peaceful morning services and prayers are broken by the discovery of a body. Venantius of Salvemec is found dead with his head down in a jar of pig’s blood.

It would seem the murderer is not interested in remaining obscure but is making a statement.

The Name of the Rose was first published in 1980 and became one of the best-selling books ever published. With over 50 million copies sold, it ranks near books such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Watership Down and Charlotte’s Web. It is comfortably ahead of To Kill a Mockingbird, War and Peace and The Great Gatsby. It was soon adapted into a 1986 film starring Sean Connery and F Murray Abraham.

Reading it decades after it was published, I found it difficult to understand why it became the sensation it did. It does have several qualities. It is well-written, well-researched and imaginative. It has the element of mystery, crime and historical fiction that appeals to many readers. But is this sufficient to explain the burst of enthusiasm that saw it surpass in sales many established classics published earlier?

I sometimes wonder what people will think decades from now about the high enthusiasm for The Da Vinci Code or Twilight. Will they read these books and wonder what all the fuss was about? Without wanting to sound like a snob, I think the quality of The Name of the Rose easily surpasses these. But if anything that only makes the mystery of its success deeper as it does not have the easy appeal of the others especially to those who are otherwise not heavy readers.

If I were to compare The Name of the Rose to my other reading, I think it is most closely related to Possession by AS Byatt. There too we have a story containing an engrossing mystery which is more of a slow-burning academic kind and not the page-turning type found in crime novels and thrillers.

The Name of the Rose is, as I said, well written. The characters of William and Adso have that classic dynamic of the older genius and the young apprentice. They share some similarities of other pairings like Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The elements of crime and mystery make for an engrossing plot. The imagination that went in to creating the abbey, especially the Aedificium and its library, and bring them to life, adds a lot of appeal. And the thought that went into the theological and philosophical subtext gives the novel a literary quality greater than its murder-mystery plot.

Though I think Eco avoids over-emphasising it, the reader cannot help acknowledge the historical implications of the novel’s setting in history. Though there was never a time of a united Christendom, the growing fissures within the Western branch are plain to see. And the reader knows what must come next – a Scientific Revolution, a Renaissance, a Hundred Years War and a Reformation. By coincidence, I read The Name of the Rose alongside Diarmaid MacCulloch’s A History of Christianity. It was particularly informative to read about the impact on Western Christendom of the rediscovery of the works of classical philosophers as well as the rise of movements such as the flagellants and the penitents.

Perhaps the novel’s 1980’s popularity can be explained by a connection reader’s felt to their own time? I still found themes in the novel relevant to our contemporary world. Prophecies sound very much like the medieval equivalent of modern conspiracy theories. A major theme of the novel concerns knowledge. The danger knowledge has if used to evil ends. The potential it has to do much good. And the power held by those who hold the keys to knowledge. Power that may be easily abused even if done on the good intentions of protecting the ignorant. Concerns over freedom of expression and free access to information are ever present in any age since they conflict with our baser instincts for suppression and control.

‘And is a library, then, an instrument not for distributing the truth but for delaying its appearance?’ I asked, dumbfounded.

‘Not always and not necessarily. In this case it is.’

Another theme of the novel is the subject of heresy. Lacking any objective test, what constitutes heresy easily changes over time. One era’s heretic becomes the next’s righteous martyr. The practices of the inquisition, disputes over who is a heretic and who is a martyr, the validity of the arguments of theologians and the orders of Popes, all serve to discredit the notion of heresy. Yet the accusation wields enormous power to destroy lives. Heresy becomes whatever those in power dislike, whatever threatens their power. A contemporary parallel might be to accuse someone of treason or bigotry.

Ubertino is, or has been, in many ways a great man. But for this very reason he is odd. It is only petty men who seem normal. Ubertino could have become one of the heretics he helped burn, or a cardinal of the holy Roman church. He came very close to both perversions. When I talk with Ubertino I have the impression that hell is heaven seen from the other side.

Speaking of issues of access to knowledge, the 1986 film is becoming difficult to find. The era of DVDs and DVD rental is long over and in its place we have our motion picture arts held in a few key online libraries, the keys to which are not in our hands and access is not up to our choice. One hopes demand can break through. I did find an online source for the film. It differs from the novel in the details but I still found it a very enjoyable film. It contains the elements of danger, mystery and conspiracy that make the novel so engaging. There is also a 2019 Italian miniseries available.  

Another reason for the appeal of The Name of the Rose is that this is a book about books. It is a novel that has been enjoyed by those with a love for books, for knowledge, for free expression and the power of books to change the world.

‘Often books speak of other books. Often a harmless book is like a seed that will blossom into a dangerous book, or it is the other way around: it is the sweet fruit of a bitter stem. In reading Albert, couldn’t I learn what Thomas might have said? Or in reading Thomas, know what Averroës said?’

‘True,’ I said, amazed. Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realised that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.

‘But then,’ I said, ‘what is the use of hiding books, if from the books not hidden you can arrive at the concealed ones?’