Original subtitles

Who killed this man, my Lord Bernard,

after you so cleverly found and confined the murderers?

Do not ask me.

I have not said I had consigned to the law...

...all the criminals at large in this abbey.

I now leave the others to the severity...

...or the excessive indulgence of my Lord Abbot.

All that remains for me is to burn the witch.

And then we shall leave you.

One more thing:

the Pope and only the Pope...

...will decide the fate of you Franciscans.

God be in your waking.

So Bernard could receive the message in...

In less than three hours, Your Holiness.

Very well. Write.

Leave quickly. That German dog...

...wants to name a new Pope, a certain Peter, Franciscan.

He will be crowned at St. Peters in Rome.

I will expunge him from the history books with bread sops.

You tell me that at the abbey they hid heretic assassins...

...encouraged by the Franciscans...

...who construe the life of Christ against me.

Either the Franciscans will come bow before my feet,

or they will forever be silent.

Michele, you must not go to Avignon.

John wants you there alone and without guarantees.

But I must go. The Pope must listen to me.

You'll be risking your life.

So be it. Rather that than risk my soul.

Then you must leave immediately. If I know Bernard,

he will try to keep you from reaching Avignon.

We will find your corpse...

...and he will say it was Remigio's devils...

...who did it.

We'll come with you.

No, I will go alone.

You will wait for my return to Pisa, and the emperor's camp.

As soon as the sun goes down exit through the iron door,

next to the slaughterhouse. - It is unguarded.

Come away with us, Brother William.

Yes, you are the one in most danger.

That is not possible. I have work to finish here.

Will Bernard bring his prisoners to Avignon?

He will burn Remigio as a heretic,

and like a propitiatory torch,

the pyre will illuminate Michele's encounter...

...with the Pope to decide the fate of the Franciscans.

And Salvatore?

He will have to testify at the trial.

Perhaps in exchange for this service,

Bernard will grant him his life.

Or he may allow him to escape and then have him killed.

And the girl?

The girl... - You can speak for her.

You know she's not a witch!

You can't let them burn her.

And for what?

Has she not already paid enough?

How much more does she need to pay for?

And for whom?

Perhaps not all is lost.

What do you mean?

Right, come on.

You will take over the duties of Remigio.

You will provide the immediate necessities...

...for the kitchen and the refectory.

Name someone to take your place in charge of the forges.

You are excused from offices. Now go.

Just last evening you were named as Malachi's assistant.

Today, after liturgy,

you will see to the opening of the scriptorium...

...and make sure that no one enters the library alone.

I have not yet been initiated...

...into the secrets of the labyrinth.

No one has said that you will be.

You will simply make sure that the work of the scriptorium...

...gets done. Each monk will work only...

...on the books already given him.

For now, no one must enter the library. No one.

Let us thank the Lord.

With the German dead, there is the risk of having...

...a new librarian even more barbaric.

Who do you think will be named in his place?

After everything that has happened these past few days,

the problem is no longer the librarian, but the abbot.

Malachi spoke of scorpions, the fifth trumpet.

The sixth trumpet speaks of horses and flames.

Will we find the next victim in the stables?

We leave tonight.

After burning the witch.

Too many calamities have afflicted this place,

for which my heart beats in my chest.

Everyone, with no exception,

should make a strict examination of conscience.

I more than anyone.

We all think our souls are clean...

...because everyone except for one is innocent...

...of the five deaths that have struck this abbey.

So we believe.

Therefore... I have decided to speak no more this day.

It has been said when the end is near,

the West will be ruled by great deceivers,

killers of men,

fraudulent, lusting for gold,

experts in tricks.

And among all people will spread disbelief,

hardness of heart,

robbery, murder...

...and all the other vices...

Poverty, compassion,

and the gift of tears...

...will all vanish.

The time of the Antichrist is at hand.

I have seen his head of burning fire.

I have seen war chariots on every side.

The youths will die,

girl children will be taken prisoner...

Judaea will be dressed in mourning...

...and in Syria it will fall...

...and they will weep for their sons.

And every city in the world...

...will be rocked by earthquakes,

storm winds will rip the lands,

the fields will be fouled...

...and in the winter...

...the heat will be intense.

Remigio!

Remigio!

Do you wanna stay cum Salvatore?

Io no free, tu no free.

I will hear you, William,

but first reply to one question:

why did you advise Michele Of Cesena to escape?

I didn't know he was a prisoner.

Perhaps he was only intent upon reaching the Pope before you.

If he does, he will find an excommunication.

You Franciscans, you're finished.

You know, in spite of everything,

I still respect you, William.

Therefore I will listen to you.

The girl you have arrested is not a witch.

How can you be certain?

I met her along the journey coming to the abbey.

She is an exile, banished from her own land.

And you care for her.

As I care for you, brother.

She has already suffered enough.

You want to protect a witch?

No. It is you I am protecting.

I have seen you commit an act...

...that even your friend Pope John could not pardon.

Satan's whore! Give me that!

Burn, burn in hell! Burn!

You, who are the meticulous author...

...of the Conduct of Inquisition of Heretical Wickedness,

you took the place of the secular arm...

...and killed with your own hands.

Are you trying to threaten me?

I confess to you that, to me,

condemning someone to the stake...

...and physically lighting the flame are the same thing.

But not to you.

Nor for your Pope.

It is you I am protecting, by not speaking the truth.

Be silent!

Get off!

Get off!

Most Reverend?

Burn her,

while the others are at church.

The Italians often spoke of Malachi as a straw man,

put here by someone else, with the complicity of the abbot.

Not realizing, I have become involved in this conflict.

The book was a pretext.

William, the book was found but Malachi died all the same.

I don't know. - Yesterday you behaved like...

...the ruler of the world. - If you had helped us yesterday,

we would have prevented this last crime.

You were the one who gave Malachi the book...

...that brought him to his death. - Tell me one thing.

Did you have the book in your hands,

did you touch it, read it? If so, why are you not dead?

I don't know. I swear I didn't touch it.

Or, rather, I touched it when I took it.

And when Malachi offered to make me his assistant,

I gave him the book.

Do not tell me you did not even open it!

Yes, yes, I did open it before hiding it.

It began with an Arabic manuscript,

then I believe there was one in Syriac,

then there was a Latin text, and finally one in Greek.

So you touched it and you are not dead.

So touching it does not kill.

What can you tell me about the Greek text? Did you look at it?

I only tried to read the first page,

but the truth is my Greek is poor.

And the parchment seemed odd...

...didn't seem like parchment, it seemed softer, like cloth.

Charta lintea, linen paper.

It was hard to separate one page from the other.

Thank you, Benno.

Don't worry. You are in no danger.

We must talk about the latest events,

on which I have reflected at length.

At too-great length, perhaps.

I must confess, Brother William, that I expected more of you.

Since you've arrived here five monks have died,

two have been arrested by the inquisition,

and that great meeting over which I presided...

...had a pitiful outcome...

...precisely because of these wicked deeds.

You will agree that I could have wished for a better resolution...

...to these events when I asked you to investigate.

That is true, I have not lived up to your expectations,

Your Sublimity, but I will explain why.

These crimes do not stem from a brawl or some vendetta...

...or jealousy or forbidden loves among the monks...

Please... - Everything turns on the theft...

...and possession of a book...

...that was concealed in the Finis Africae,

and which is now there again...

...thanks to Malachi's intervention.

However, the series of crimes...

...did not stop with the return of the book.

No, no, no. That is impossible. How can...

How do you know... How do you know about the Finis Africae?

Have you disobeyed my ban and entered the library?

Crimes were committed to prevent many...

...from discovering something it was considered...

...undesirable for them to discover.

Now all those who knew something of the library's secrets,

whether rightly or through trickery, are dead.

Only one person remains: yourself.

Do you wish to insinuate--

Do not misunderstand me.

I say there is someone who knows...

...and wants no one else to know.

As the last to know, you could be the next victim.

Unless you tell me what you know about the forbidden book...

...and who in the abbey might know what you know.

Come here.

Look.

Turquoise signifies joy;

sardonyx suggests the seraphim;

topaz, the cherubim;

jasper, thrones;

chrysolite, dominions;

the sapphire is for the virtues...

...ruby, archangels;

and emerald, angels...

I could go on forever.

How wondrous is the language of gems.

Down on your knees!

You wish to enter the noblest, the greatest order of them all;

of that order I am an abbot,

and here you are under my jurisdiction.

Hear my command:

you will forget the things you have heard these days;

and may your eyes and lips be sealed forever.

Swear it!

What does the boy have to do with it?

I asked you a question, I warned you of a danger.

I asked you to tell me a name.

Do you now wish me, too, to kiss the ring...

...and forget what I have learned or what I suspect? Get up!

You.

I should have known that a mendicant friar...

...would never understand the beauties of our tradition.

You speak to me of some strange story, some incredible story...

...about a banned book that leads to a chain of murders;

of someone who knows things that only I should know...

Tall tales, meaningless accusations.

Speak of it if you wish.

No one will believe you.

Your mission here is over.

I'm sure you are anxiously awaited at the imperial court.

Therefore I give you permission to leave the abbey.

You will leave tomorrow morning, early,

at the same time as the papal delegation.

I will bid you farewell again at dawn.

Naturally, it is no longer necessary for you...

...to continue your investigations.

Please do not disturb my monks further.

Vespers. Off you go.

That peacock who exists only because he wears a ring...

...as big as the bottom of a glass!

The abbot knew everything...

...and imagined you would discover nothing.

'Thank you, Brother William,

the Emperor needs you,

you see what a beautiful ring I have,

goodbye.'

I am not leaving these walls...

...until I have found out.

He wants me to leave tomorrow morning, does he?

Very well, but by tomorrow morning I must know.

You must? - I must.

Divine providence has endowed us...

...with a radiant certitude.

What does that mean? - That William of Baskerville,

who gives the impression of having understood everything,

does not know how to enter the Finis Africae.

Because the answer must be there.

Brother William...

Tertius equi... - What?

Nothing. I was just remembering poor Salvatore.

He wanted to perform God knows what magic with the third horse,

but with his comical Latin he referred to it as tertius equi,

which would be the U. - The U?

Yes, because tertius equi does not mean the third horse,

but the third of the horse,

and the third letter of the word equus is U.

Your Roger Bacon was right:

a scholar's first duty is to learn languages.

God bless you, Adso.

What a fool I am!

'Primum et septimum de quatuor'

does not mean the first and seventh of four,

but of the four, the word 'four'!

The words carved over the mirror!

Super thronos viginti quatuor!

Run to our cell and get both those lamps, quickly!

I have wondered all along whether...

...there was not another access to the Finis Africae...

...in this tower so full of passages.

But who is in there? - The second person.

One is in the Finis Africae,

the other has tried to reach him, like us.

Then let's go!

Here it is!

Remember, push the first and seventh of the four.

I can't see the four. - Wait, I can't see it yet. Yes!

No, no, no... Left! Left, left.

No, right! Higher! A little bit higher!

A little higher! - I can't!

To the right, to the right.

Push!

Now left, left.

More, more. There.

Stop!

Push.

Yes!

Good evening, venerable Jorge.

I knew you would arrive, William of Baskerville...

And the abbot, is he the one trapped in the secret stairway?

Is he still alive?

I thought he would have already suffocated.

I would like to save him. You can open from this side.

No. Too late.

Mater mea... Mater mea... Mater mea...

Help! Help! Who is there?

Jorge! Jorge!

I am your abbot, you will release me!

When I heard the abbot arrive down below,

I pulled on the rope that holds the weights.

The rope broke.

Now the passage is sealed at both sides...

...and the device can never be repaired.

The abbot is dead.

Why did you kill him?

Brother William explained everything to me.

Now you will explain what I do not know.

What treasures are you trying to protect?

I will order the Finis Africae open to all.

It's what the Italians want.

You come to Finis Africae during Vespers,

you will find my body.

And then you can bring the whole world to the library!

So I told him about the other tunnel,

that still only I know.

The one I used for so many years,

because it was easier in the dark.

So you had him come here, knowing you would kill him.

I could no longer trust him. He was frightened.

For 40 years you have been master of this abbey.

When you realized you were going blind...

...and you could no longer control the library,

you had a man you could trust elected abbot,

and as librarian you had him name Malachi,

who never took a step without consulting you.

This is what the Italian group wanted to end,

this is what Alinardo kept repeating,

but no one would listen to him because they considered him mad...

...by now. Am I right?

From the first day I knew you would understand.

From your voice, from the way you drew me into debate...

...about a subject I did not want to discuss.

You were better than the others:

I knew you would reach the solution, no matter what.

And when I heard Severinus was coming to you about the book,

I was sure you were on my trail.

But you managed to get the book away from me.

You went to Malachi,

who had no idea of the situation.

In his jealousy, the fool was still obsessed with the idea...

...that Adelmo had stolen his beloved Berengar,

who by then craved younger flesh.

You may have told Malachi

Berengar had been intimate with Severinus.

Crazed with jealousy, Malachi went to Severinus...

...for the book that he imagined Berengar had given him...

...as a reward for his intimacy, and killed him.

But he didn't have time to hunt for the book...

...because the cellarer arrived. Is that what happened?

It is, more or less.

I did not want Malachi to die.

I told him to find the book at whatever cost...

...and come back here, without opening it.

But for the first time,

the madman decided to act on his own initiative.

Discovering what was so forbidden about the object...

...that had made him a murderer.

I want to see the book you stole...

...to keep others from reading it.

You did not destroy it...

...because a man like you does not destroy a book.

I want to see the second book of the Poetics of Aristotle,

the book that speaks about the value of laughter.

The book everyone believed lost or never written,

and of which you perhaps hold the only copy.

What a magnificent librarian you would have been, William!

Here...

Here's your prize.

Read it, leaf through it.

It is yours, you've earned it.

You have won.

Then it is not true...

...that you consider me so clever, Jorge.

You cannot see that I have gloves on.

With my fingers made clumsy like this,

I cannot detach one page from the next,

as I would with bare hands, moistening my fingers...

...until a good portion of the poison had passed to my mouth.

I'm speaking of the poison that you, one day long ago,

took from the laboratory of Severinus...

Go on!

When Adelmo came too close to the subject of this book,

his curiosity cost him dearly:

a mortal sin for a book he didn't even have time to open.

But Venanzio did.

He went through it avidly,

with an almost physical voracity.

He soon felt ill...

...and went to the kitchen.

The rest is simple.

Berengar found him in the kitchen,

and in fearing an inquiry, carried the body...

...and dumped it into a barrel of blood,

hoping that everyone would be convinced...

...that Venanzio had drowned.

Then Berengar disappeared with the book,

which had aroused his curiosity, too.

Thus we have an explanation for all the corpses.

What a fool!

Who? - I.

Because of a remark of Alinardo's,

I was convinced the series of crimes...

...followed the sequence of the seven trumpets...

...of the Apocalypse.

The fact is you are a murderer.

I have killed no one.

Each died according to his destiny for his sins.

I was only the instrument.

It is my duty to protect the library.

A few minutes ago you were ready to kill me too,

and also this boy.

You are subtler, but no better than the rest.

Tell me why you wanted to shield this book.

There are other books that speak of comedy,

why does this book fill you with such fear?

Because it was written by the philosopher.

How did you guess...

...it was Aristotle's second book of Poetics?

It took shape in my mind as it had to be.

I could tell you almost all of it,

without reading the pages that were meant to poison me.

Comedy tells of base and ridiculous creatures,

and does not end with the death of its protagonists.

It achieves the ridiculous by showing us the defects...

...and vices of ordinary man.

It actually obliges us...

...to examine them more closely.

It tells us things differently...

...and it makes us say: '

this is just how things are, and I didn't know it.'

Every book that that man has written...

...has destroyed parts of the knowledge...

...that Christianity has accumulated over the centuries.

If it was heard said that I laugh at God,

we would have no weapons to combat such a disaster.

So you spread the ointment in the dark.

But now my eyes see better than yours.

It was a good idea, was it not?

It took you a long time to arrive at it.

You are the Devil! - I?

Yes. You are the Devil,

and like the Devil, you live in darkness.

If you wanted to convince me, you have failed.

I hate you, Jorge,

and if I could, I would lead you downstairs,

across the ground, naked,

with fowls' feathers stuck in your asshole...

...and your face painted like a buffoon,

so the whole monastery would laugh at you...

...and be afraid no longer.

You... You are worse than the Devil.

You are a clown, like the saint that gave birth to you all.

You say I am the Devil. That is not true.

I am the hand of God.

The hand of God creates, it does not conceal.

I have found you.

And I have found the book and the others have died in vain.

To ensure they have not died in vain,

one more death will not be too many.

Find me now! I am the one who sees best!

He's blocking us in!

Light, give me light!

Hurry!

He's eating the Poetic of Aristotle!

Get the book!

Fire!

Now I seal that which should not be said.

From hell, I curse you.

I want the book! - Master!

Come on! Come on!

Give it to me! Give it to me!

Come with us.

Quiet!

Move, freak!

Move!

Come on, move, witch!

I said...

Stop whining, witch!

We'll see you burn tonight, witch.

Master, let's go!

William!

Go!

Do it, now!

Free the girl and I will not cut your throat.

Who are you to give me orders?

A woman. The sack of shit and perversion that so revolts you.

You are a demon. How can I trust you?

Because you have no choice. Whereas I've made mine.

Between your life and the life of an innocent girl.

And what about your life?

You have taken that already.

Let her go! Let her go!

Go, go!

You burned my father and mother alive.

So it is you.

You slaughtered my husband and child.

I know you will not keep your promise.

Most Reverend Father!

The library! Fetch water, as much water as you can!

Quickly! Quickly!

Remigio! Remigio!

Remigio! No!

Remigio!

Remigio! Remigio!

Remigio! - Over here!

Break it!

There's not enough water here, nor in the well.

Send mules to the river!

Remigio!

William! William!

The library! The library!

Libera me Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda.

Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra.

Dum veneris iudicare saeculum per ignem.

She's alive.

You did not succeed to burn yourself with your books.

It's all in here, William.

The Bible is in here.

All the rest of the books in the world can burn.

Burn for the glory of God!

Remigio!

No, Remigio! Turn back! Turn back! No!

We fall in a black hole.

The Apocalypse is within our hearts.

The abbey burned for three days and three nights.

On the third day, when the corpses had been buried,

the monks abandoned the still-smoking abbey...

...as a place accursed.

This was the only love of my life and I could not,

then or ever after, call that love by name.

Master!

Master!

Why are you following me?

Because I've never met someone like you.

That's not a good reason to follow anyone.

Poking about in the rubble,

I collected scraps of parchment and I filled two traveling sacks...

...and loaded them on a mule that was running away.

I was carrying with me a library...

...made up of fragments of stories,

unfinished sentences, phantoms of books.

It was the greatest library in all of Christendom.

Now, the Antichrist is truly at hand,

because no learning will hinder him anymore.

We have seen his face.

You have no reason to reproach yourself.

You did your best.

A human best, which is very little.

Where is all my wisdom?

I behaved stubbornly, pursuing a semblance of order,

when I should have known there is no order in the universe.

The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder,

built to attain something.

But afterward you must throw the ladder away...

...because even if it was useful, it was meaningless.

Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind...

...is to make people laugh at the truth,

to make truth laugh.

I will return to Melk and I will take my vows there.

And then I shall travel the world...

...in search of books and spread their words.

Of the beauty, of the color,

of the perfume of a rose when it wilts,

only a word remains.

Its name.