The Name of the Rose

In 1327 the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his young novice Adso arrive at a rich Benedictine abbey in the mountains of northern Italy, where a series of deaths draws them into a labyrinthine library and a deadly secret about a forbidden book. Eco sets his medieval murder mystery at an unnamed monastery in the Ligurian Apennines: the scriptorium where the monks illuminate manuscripts, the great fortress-library of the Aedificium, the church and grounds, and the Inquisition that arrives to twist the search for truth.

Adso

The abbey

First day

William and Adso climb to a great Benedictine abbey perched in the mountains, wealthy, austere and already uneasy, where a young illuminator has just died in suspicious circumstances. Eco builds his whole world within these walls, a self-contained medieval universe of monks, relics, rivalries and rules into which the outsider William brings the disturbing light of reason.

The first day

inspired by The wealthy Benedictine abbey is unnamed in the novel, located by Eco in the mountains of northern Italy between Provence and the Ligurian coast; it is sited in that Apennine region.

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