The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is an interesting historical murder novel set in medieval Italy.

As I hadn’t seen the movie of the same name in a very long time and didn’t remember the plot, I was happy to pick this up when I saw it in my local bookshop. I made the decision to remind myself of the cast members to help me visualise the book – IMDB was my friend there. The main roles are played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater has well as a noted contribution by Ron Perlman.

The book (originally written in Italian and translated to English) was not easy reading. As there are many Latin quotations and phrases used within, I ended up needing to make heavy use of Google Translate to understand what was going on in key sections.

Much of the plot revolves around complex political machinations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire. These were difficult to understand for someone who is not a student of medieval history. Eco was trying to dramatise and bring to life an internal dispute within the Church about whether clerics should live in poverty or not. This was really a proxy question for whether the Church should play a part in influencing temporal power and politics in the secular world.

One of the key locations described in the book was a labyrinthine library. I liked this quotation:

In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro.

(Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.)

Thomas a Kempis

The novel described some of differences between the main monastic orders of the Church, including the Franciscans and the Benedictines. I learned about the “Rule of Saint Benedict” and how it described the rhythms of everyday monastic life.

An interesting book in a historic setting.