The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose, is the first novel by the famous Umberto Eco (1932-2016), semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and (late in his career) novelist. The story is set in the early 14th century (1327). The photograph below is of the copy I bought in 1984 (that takes one back...).

cover name of the roseFor me it proved to be a perfect opportunity to make my acquaintance with a medieval abbey, life in an abbey following the canonical hours, the intellectual climate in monastic life, books that were around, how they were made (literally written and ornamented) what a great library could look like, how to look at medieval art, learn about (medieval) symbology, and so on. Even get a glimpse of the way people tried to make sense of their lives, influenced by religious, theological and philosophical views of the time. 

Images and metaphors

The fact that Eco was a semiotician had a huge influence on the book. He didn't want to write "just a novel", but also incorporate his own knowledge as a semiotician and philosopher. Semiotics is about meaning, meaning making and meaningful communication. Umberto Eco is a master of these processes and created a universe of its own in this beautiful book. You can find a very nice and elaborate review on encyclopedia.com. In particular the way Eco talks about the metaphor of the net (which comes from Ludwig Wittgenstein of course) is very intriguing:

Eco about the net metaphor

This reminds the reader immediately of the way Adso talks about "books speaking of books":

Adso about books speaking of books

Labyrinths and encyclopedias

Besides the net, the labyrinth and the encyclopedia are the other key metaphors in the book. 

What kind of book is it?

Well, that's a difficult one. Historical novel? Kind of. Detective story? Yes, sure. Mystery novel? Yeah, that too. So probably this was not the most relevant question to ask ;-).

Beginning

The very first sentence of the prologue gives us a hint of the frame of reference we are dealing with:

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 

The prologue (beginning) of the book starts with a text about "beginning" with theological and cosmological connotations, coming from the bible. It's the first sentence from the gospel of St. John. And of course if we hear the words "in the beginning" we are immediately reminded of the first sentence of the book of Genesis about the creation. So the Bible (Old and New Testament) is important; there will be a lot of quoting from it during this novel. Especially from the last book of the New Testament, the Revelation of St. John.

Another key text is a fragment from a poem by Alanus ab Insulis (+1227):

Omnis mundi creatura
quasi liber et pictura
nobis est in speculum;
nostrae vitae, nostrae mortis
nostri status, nostrae sortis
fidele signaculum.

A discussion and several translations of the complete poem can be found on the site of Dick Würsten at this LINK.

I use here the (metrical) translation of Daniel J. Donahue: 

In this world each mortal creature 
Shows our life in form and feature, 
From the very dawn of birth;
Even as in a mirror showeth
How the man appeareth, groweth, 
And his sad return to earth.

As is immediately clear, this poem is (also) about beginning and ending; being born, living and dying. Also in the second verse the rose is presented as a symbol of life, beauty, decay and death, which refers of course to the title of the book. 

Ending

In the book the lives of several monks end in highly symbolic ways... blood, water, poison.

In medieval times the last(!) book of the bible, Revelations is mainly about the end of times: the word apocalyps comes from the greek name of the book. The abbey itself comes to an end and is consumed in fire (!), the library and all its books with it.

Order

In the medieval era, the earth and all that belongs to it is considered to part of Creation (In the beginning God created heaven and earth.). So there is a strong conviction that the created reflects the the Creator. The order of the cosmos is perceptible on earth. Which is of course a rather Platonic view.  

Mirrors

The world (creation) is a mirror to mankind in the poem.

The mirror has always been a very potent symbol; it's found everwhere, everytime: St.Paul is quoted (1 Cor. 13:12): "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (King James Version)

We encounter concave and convex mirrors in the library (which return distorted images). And of course we cannot help the associations coming of other mirrors in literature Umberto Eco surely knew: the looking glass of Alice (Lewis Caroll), the mirror of Galadriel (Tolkien), the mirror in Phantastes (George MacDonald), etc. etc. 

Mysteries 

Life is a mystery.

If the library is a mirror reflecting the world, it cannot be a surprise that it has been designed as a labyrinth. 

Enjoy!