The Name of the Rose

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The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose.jpg
First edition (Italian)
Author Umberto Eco
Original title Il Nome della Rosa
Country Italy
Language Italian
Genre Historical novel, Mystery
Publisher Bompiani (Italy)
Harcourt (US)
Publication date
Published in English
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 512 pp
ISBN 0-15-144647-4
OCLC 8954772
853/.914 19
LC Class PQ4865.C6 N613 1983

The Name of the Rose is the debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is an historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery, in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory. First published in Italian in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa [il ˈnoːme ˈdella ˈrɔːza], it appeared in English in 1983, translated by William Weaver.

Plot summary[edit]



Primary characters
At the monastery

Major themes[edit]



The aedificium's labyrinth[edit]

The mystery revolves around the abbey library, situated in a fortified tower—the aedificium. This structure has three floors - the ground floor contains the kitchen and refectory, the first floor a scriptorium, and the top floor is occupied by the library.[4] The two lower floors are open to all, while only the librarian may enter the last. A catalogue of books is kept in the scriptorium, where manuscripts are read and copied. A monk who wishes to read a book would send a request to the librarian, who, if he thought the request justified, would bring it to the scriptorium. Finally, the library is in the form of a labyrinth, whose secret only the librarian and the assistant librarian know.[5]


The aedificium's labyrinth
  • Acaia, Greece, Northeast
  • Iudaia, Judea, East
  • Aegyptus, Egypt, Southeast
  • Yspania, Spain, Sothwest outer
  • Roma, Italy, Southwest inner
  • Hibernia, Ireland, West Tower
  • Gallia, France, Northwest
  • Germania, Germany, North
  • Anglia, England, North Tower

Two rooms have no lettering - the easternmost room, which has an altar, and the central room on the south tower, the so-called finis Africae, which contains the most heavily guarded books, and can only be entered through a secret door. The entrance to the library is in the central room of the east tower, which is connected to the scriptorium by a staircase.[8]




This text has also been translated as "Yesterday's rose stands only in name, we hold only empty names." This line is a verse by twelfth century monk Bernard of Cluny (also known as Bernard of Morlaix). Medieval manuscripts of this line are not in agreement (but the best read "Roma" instead of "rosa"). Roma here introduces a "false" quantity, with a long-o for the Classical short-o; thus, a scribe may have written the "classically impeccable" rosa, which betrays the overall context and flexible prosody of Bernard. Eco quotes one Medieval variant verbatim,[11] but Eco was not aware at the time of the text more commonly printed in modern editions, in which the reference is to Rome (Roma), not to a rose (rosa).[12] The alternative text, with its context, runs: Nunc ubi Regulus aut ubi Romulus aut ubi Remus? / Stat Roma pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus. This translates as "Where now is Regulus, or Romulus, or Remus? / Primordial Rome abides only in its name; we hold only naked names." See the new excellent source edition of 2009: Bernard of Cluny, De contemptu mundi: Une vision du monde vers 1144, ed. and trans. A. Cresson, Témoins de notre histoire (Turnhout, 2009), p. 126 (bk. 1, 952), and note thereto p. 257.

Also the title of the book may be related to a poem by the Mexican poet and mystic Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695):

Rosa que al prado, encarnada,
te ostentas presuntuosa
de grana y carmín bañada:
campa lozana y gustosa;
pero no, que siendo hermosa
también serás desdichada.


Red rose growing in the meadow,
you vaunt yourself bravely
bathed in crimson and carmine:
a rich and fragrant show.
But no: Being fair,
You will be unhappy soon.[3]


To other works[edit]




The ending also owes a debt to Borges' short story "Death and the Compass," in which a detective proposes a theory for the behavior of a murderer. The murderer learns of the theory and uses it to trap the detective. In The Name of the Rose, the librarian Jorge uses William's belief that the murders are based on the Revelation of John to misdirect William, though in Eco's tale, the detective succeeds in solving the crime.

The "poisoned page" motif may have been inspired by Alexandre Dumas' novel La Reine Margot (1845). It was also used in the film Il giovedì (1963) by Italian director Dino Risi.[14]

Eco seems also to have been aware of Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Eye of Allah," which touches on many of the same themes, like optics, manuscript illumination, music, medicine, priestly authority and the Church's attitude to scientific discovery and independent thought, and which also includes a character named John of Burgos.


To actual history and geography[edit]

William of Ockham, who lived during the time at which the novel is set, first put forward the principle known as Ockham's Razor, often summarised as the dictum that one should always accept as most-likely the simplest explanation that accounts for all the facts (a method used by William of Baskerville in the novel).



Part of the dialogue in the inquisition scene of the novel is lifted bodily from the historical Bernard's own Manual for Inquisitors, the Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis, for example the dialogue: "What do you believe?" "What do you believe, my Lord?" "I believe in all that the Creed teaches." "So I believe, My Lord." Bernard then points out that what Remigius the cellarer is saying is not that Remigius believes in the Creed, but that Remigius believes that Bernard believes in the Creed. This is an example given by Bernard in his book to warn inquisitors against the slipperiness and manipulation of words by heretics. This use of Bernard's own book by Eco is self-consciously of a piece with his perspective that "books always speak of other books." In this case, the author integrates the historical Bernard's text into his own through the fictional character of Bernard.

Adso's description of the portal of the monastery is recognizably that of the portal of the church at Moissac, France.[citation needed] There is also a quick reference to a famous "Umberto of Bologna" – Umberto Eco himself.



Dramatic works[edit]



  • The British rock band Ten released the album The Name of the Rose (1996), whose eponymous track is loosely based around some of the philosophical concepts of the novel.
  • The British rock band Iron Maiden released the song "Sign of the Cross in 1995, part of their X Factor album, the song refers to the novel.

See also[edit]


  4. ^ First Day, Terce, paragraph 37
  5. ^ First Day, Terce, paragraph 67
  6. ^ Third Day, Vespers, paragraphs 50-56
  7. ^ Third Day, Vespers, paragraphs 64-68
  8. ^ Fourth Day, After Compline
  15. ^
  16. ^ Canby, Vincent (September 24, 1986). "The Name of the Rose (1986) FILM: MEDIEVAL MYSTERY IN 'NAME OF THE ROSE'". The New York Times. 


  • Wischermann, Heinfried (1997). Romanesque. Konemann. 

External links[edit]