The Name of the Rose: "Naturally, A Manuscript" and Prologue Summary & Analysis

In 1980, an unnamed narrator explains how he came across the “terrible story” written by Adso of Melk, a fourteenth-century German monk. He first encountered a published version of the manuscript in 1968, translated into French in the nineteenth century by the Abbé Vallet and published by the “Abbaye de la Source.” The narrator transcribed Adso’s memoirs, but lost the book when it was stolen by his traveling companion (with whom he was romantically involved, and it ended badly—thus, there is no possibility of asking for it back). Perplexingly, he has found no record that the book ever existed, and a medievalist scholar has informed him that no Abbé Vallet ever published books in the nineteenth century on the presses of the “Abbaye de la Source.”

Because the narrator has no more luck finding the manuscript source of Vallet’s book, he wonders if it might be a forgery. But two years later, browsing a bookshop in Buenos Aires, he finds quotations of  Adso’s story in an Italian translation of a Georgian book from the 1930s. That book was quoting a seventeenth-century Latin work by Father Athanasius Kircher, who was quoting Adso. Although the narrator is still many degrees removed from the original text and hasn’t seen the book himself, he now has independent confirmation that Adso’s manuscript existed—at least at one point—and that people other than Vallet had seen it.

 Although the narrator is “full of doubts” and is still not fully convinced of the text’s authenticity, he decides he has enough evidence of its veracity to translate and publish his Italian version. He explains that Adso wrote his memoirs near the year 1400, but that the events described took place around 1327. In describing the editorial conventions he has used, he explains that the manuscript is divided into seven days, and each day into eight sections corresponding to the hours of the day at which the monks prayed (matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline). He suggests that Vallet “took some liberties” in his translation and that this is the reason why Adso anachronistically references texts published after the 1300s. The narrator also theorizes that the short summaries that preface each chapter must have been added by Vallet.

The narrative then switches to Adso’s point of view. At the end of the fourteenth century, he writes a prologue to his memoirs and reflects on events that took place in November 1327, when he was a young novice monk, about eighteen years old. At that age, Adso had first joined the Benedictines, an old, prestigious, and wealthy order of monks that emphasizes silent prayer and reflection. He knows that he is now close to death, and hopes to leave behind a record of the strange and terrible events that he saw as a young monk. He will not try to “seek a design” or explain the reasons for these incidents, but will instead leave behind “signs” for the reader to decipher.

As an aid to the reader, Adso provides some context in order to better explain the political situation in Italy in the 1320s. At that time, he explains, the seat of the papacy was in Avignon, in France, and the popes were traditionally allied with the kings of France. Pope John XXII was in a power struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis the Bavarian: the Pope claimed the right to appoint the Emperor, and the Emperor claimed the right to appoint his own bishops and maintain sovereignty in his own domain. By the end of the 1320s, relations had deteriorated far enough that the Pope had excommunicated the Emperor, and the Emperor was openly calling the Pope a heretic.

 The Franciscan order had become the Pope’s enemies and the Emperor’s allies, because the general of the Franciscans, Michael of Cesena, claimed that the church should renounce its political authority and its officials should return to a state of poverty, following Christ’s example. The Emperor applauded this theological proposition, because it seemed to reduce the power and political influence of the Pope. Thus, Franciscans like Michael are on the side of the Emperor and receive his political protection.

Adso’s father—a wealthy German nobleman—was fighting on the side of the Emperor. In order to avoid the fighting, he removed Adso from his monastery at Melk and sent him to Italy. Deciding that it was not appropriate for a young man to wander Italy alone and without guidance, Adso’s father placed him in the service of William of Baskerville, an English Franciscan. Adso was appointed to work as William’s scribe and servant. Together they traveled through northern Italy, a region where the abbeys were generally allied with the Emperor and opposed to the “heretical, corrupt Pope.”

Adso describes William’s unusual physical appearance: he is about fifty years old, very tall and thin, and wears glasses for reading. After some time traveling with William, Adso has gotten to know the quirks and habits of his new master fairly well. William is passionate about other new technologies, like the clock, the astrolabe, and the magnet. He believes that one day, people will be able to visit the bottom of the sea and fly through the air. He is often very energetic, but can sometimes lie down for hours with a “vacant, absent expression” when he’s thinking. In sum, William is the most brilliant and unusual person the young Adso has ever met.