Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
Day One: Sext (pp. 40-64)
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This website is restricted to commentary on the architecture of the abbey's Romanesque church (pp. 40-41). Commentary on First Day: Sext continues with comments on Adso's view of the tympanum sculptures (pp. 41-45).
When Adso visits the abbey church
for the first time, Eco wants us, as modern readers, to
realize that this is a Romanesque church, and he does so by
alluding to physical characterists that would distinguish
it from a Gothic church. These terms, "Romanesque" and
"Gothic," were not applied to church architecture until the 19th century, so Eco must
give us clues, instead. In order to understand the setting, it
is important to read up on Romanesque church archicture,
and Gothic church architecture.
[Mary Bogart comments] Eco explains in Postcript to The Name of the Rose that the narrative "mask" of Adso, a "chronicler of the period," would free him, the empirical author, from "suspicion," but not "from the echo's of intertextuality" (510). Through Adso's description of the church, Eco attempts to establish a modal reader, a reader whom, for perhaps the first time, tries to establish a dialogue with the text (523).
At first glance, the two paragraphs at the opening of Sext, appear to be background information, the narrator's "innocent" attempt to place the church in historical context, a context of whom a contemporary of Adso's might easily identify, while simultaneously creating an accurate narrative image for the reader. However, a closer reading allows the reader's eyes, like Adso's "to grow accustomed to the gloom"- this "gloom" perhaps, being the first 100 pages of text. A closer look at Adso's architectural references as contextual clues also provides the bait a reader needs to see if he or she is able to become a modal reader, one "created by the book" (522).
To illustrate, the following notes include highlighted references--links to relevant information, and pictures that Adso might would include in a travelogue.
"The church was not majestic like others I saw later at Strasbourg, Chartres, Bamberg,* Paris (p. 40): Two key words in this phrase are "majestic" and "later." The ambiguity of these words whose purpose is to place the church in historical context, but one must be aware that "later" could not mean the mature or high Gothic period, because historically, Adso would not have been alive then. Therefore, "majestic," although an adjective associated with the high Gothic period, is Adso's personal feeling about what would later be called a "crossing tower." Adso might also have associated "majestic" with Abbot Suger's efforts; however, Eco doesn't mention St.-Denis among the Cathedrals of which Adso compares the abbey church. Perhaps this association would have been too simple for the reader to get an actual picture of time and place.
*I could not find any pictures of Bamberg. Here is a map of ecclesiastical Europe. Perhaps you'll have better luck.
**Here is a closer look at Strasbourg and Paris
"It resembled, rather, those I had already seen in Italy*, with scant inclination to soar dizzyingly toward the heavens…"
*Here are examples of Romanesque churches and cathedreals in Italy. Two others whom William would have known were Pisa and Assisi.
"…indeed firmly set on the earth, often broader than they were high; but at the first level this one was surmounted, like a fortress, by a sequence of square battlements and above this story, another construction rose, not so much a tower, as a solid, second church, capped by a pitched roof* and pierced by severe windows" (p. 40):
*For a picture of a pitched roof, see Lorna Price, Lorna, Plan of St. Gall: In Brief, University of California Press, 1982, p. 21
"A robust abbatical church such as our forefathers* built in Provence and Languedoc" (p. 40): *Who were the 'forefathers' who built churches in Provence and Languedoc and why did Adso mention these regions as a point of reference?"
Adso writes his "book" to an audience of patron brothers who knew who would have recognized who "our forefathers" were. However, here, Eco is asking reader to discover who he or she is as a modl reader because Adso's references give clues to the reader's monastic heritage. By mentioning, these communities, Adso had either visited or studied them. So, what is the historical connection between Adso, the reader, and "our forefathers"? (A title in the University of Auckland Library Catalogue called Urban and Rural Communities in Medieval France: Provence and Languedoc, 1000-1500, edited by Kathryn Reyerson and John Drendel, 1998, is available for anyone who would like to explore this path further.)
Provence and Languedoc are areas in southern France in the French Pyranees. Most of the villages are accessible to one another by small, winding mountain roads or by canals. Many Romanesque churches are perched on mountaintops (sound familiar?), and one is famous for the surrounding crypts and tombs carved right into its mountain. These churches are not major tourist attractions; in present times, a traveler like Eco might rent one of the lovely villas and spend his time skiing (in winter) or hiking (in summer). One can imagine how this area might inspire a traveler such as Eco; he could get a feeling for medieval times in relative comfort and privacy. For example, when Adso says "… far from the audacity and excessive tracery…" could Eco be referring to a type of tourism? Moreover, as Adso continues, "characteristic of the modern style…" could this style refer to a style of visiting the more famous Cathedrals in Paris? Another interesting note: some of the canal waters are believed to have healing powers.
"…far form the audacity and excessive tracery characteristic of the modern style,
which only in more recent times has been enriched, I believe above the choir with a pinnacle boldly pointed toward the roof of the heavens" (p. 40).
"Two strait and unadorned* columns" (p. 40, paragraph 2): "Unadorned" is an important word here because it was unusual for these columns not to be adorned with carvings. The purpose in choosing plain columns could be twofold: first, the monastery would not associate nor align itself with any patron saints; second, as a plot device, the plain columns would distract a person from the tympanum, thus perhaps foregrounding the tympanum's message.
"…stood on either side of the entrance, which opened at first sight, like a single great arch; but from the columns began two embrasures that, surmounted by other, multiple arches led the gaze, as if into the heart of an abyss, toward the doorway itself" (p. 40). . . .
"...crowned by the great, tympanum supported in the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar*, which divided the entrance into in two apertures protected by oak doors reinforced by metal" (p. 40: *Adso mentions "a carved pillar," but does not elaborate. Again, typically, these pillars were carved with figures, but one would assume that Adso would note any carvings of patron saints.
"At that hour of the day,* the weak sun was beating almost strait down on the roof and the light fell obliquely on the façade without illuminating the tympanum**" (p. 40): *Typically, the sun "at that hour of the day," at noon, would be bright. However, Eco creates suspense by leaving the tympanum cloaked in "gloom" until Adso is close enough to experience the effects of its sculptures.
**See typanumn sculptures at Strasbourg, and Chartres, and Paris for comparison.
"…so after passing the two columns, we found ourselves abruptly under the almost sylvan vault of the arches* that sprang from the series of lesser columns that proportionally reinforced the embrasures…" (pp. 40-41): *I cannot find a picture of a "sylvan" vault and it must be an important architectural reference because Adso mentions sylvan vaulting a few times. However, here is a glossary containing detailed descriptions of vaulting.
tympanum images (pp. 40-41) [comment by Joe Motta]: On his first visit to the monastery’s church, Adso becomes engrossed in the images carved in the tympanum above the door. The scene depicted there is taken from Revelation 4:1-8. The author of Revelation asserts that this vision was revealed to him when a door in heaven was opened (Rev. 4:1). Eco is clearly associating Adso with the author of Revelation by portraying him as receiving the same vision at the door of the church.