Aristotle's Poetics II

Aristotle's Poetics II is the lost second book of Aristotle's Poetics, which treats comedy, laughter, and the ridiculous. In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a single surviving Greek manuscript of this work, bound together with an Arabic text, a Syriac alchemical treatise, and a Latin commentary on the Coena Cypriani, becomes the object of a series of murders. The book is hidden in the secret chamber of the abbey library called the finis Africae, and its discovery and destruction form the climax of the novel's plot. The book's existence and its content—a philosophical defense of laughter as a tool for truth and a means of purifying the passions—are the central mystery that drives the narrative, and its suppression by the blind librarian Jorge of Burgos represents the conflict between dogmatic authority and free inquiry.

Identity and Physical Description

The book is a composite volume, a single codex containing four distinct texts bound together. According to the library catalogue, it comprises: an Arabic manuscript on the sayings of a fool; a Syriac translation of an Egyptian alchemical work; a Latin commentary on the Coena Cypriani by a certain Master Alcofribas; and, most importantly, a Greek manuscript described as a Liber acephalus (headless book) on the loves of virgins and whores. This final text is the second book of Aristotle's Poetics. The Greek portion is written on charta lintea (linen paper), a rare and costly material at the time, which makes the pages soft and prone to sticking together. The first page of the Greek text is worn and crumbling, and the margins are spattered with pale stains. The book's binding is worn and fragile, with light metal bands. It is this physical peculiarity—the soft, sticky pages of the Greek section—that allows Jorge to poison the book, as the poison is absorbed by the reader's fingers and mouth when they moisten them to turn the pages.

Content and Philosophical Significance

The Greek text, as William of Baskerville translates it, begins by stating that the first book of the Poetics dealt with tragedy and how it produces catharsis through pity and fear. The second book promises to treat comedy, satire, and mime, and to examine how the pleasure of the ridiculous leads to the purification of that passion. It argues that laughter is proper to man and defines the types of actions comedy imitates and the means by which it excites laughter, including actions and speech. The book details how the ridiculous arises from likening the best to the worst, from deceit, from the impossible, from violation of the laws of nature, from the debasing of characters, and from vulgar pantomime. It also shows how the ridiculousness of speech is born from misunderstandings, garrulity, wordplay, diminutives, errors of pronunciation, and barbarisms. This philosophical treatment of laughter, which elevates it from a base, plebeian entertainment to an art and an object of learned inquiry, is what Jorge of Burgos finds so threatening. He fears that the book could teach that freeing oneself from the fear of the Devil is wisdom, and that laughter could become a weapon to cancel fear and to challenge the seriousness of spiritual shepherds.

Role in the Plot: The Forbidden Object

The book is the hidden prize at the heart of the abbey's labyrinthine library. It is kept in the finis Africae, a secret, walled-off room accessible only through a hidden mechanism. The librarian, Malachi of Hildesheim, and his assistant, Berengar of Arundel, are the only ones who know its location. The translator Venantius of Salvemec, having learned of the book from Berengar, steals it and begins to read it, but dies from the poison Jorge has smeared on its pages. Berengar then takes the book, reads it in the infirmary, and also dies from the poison. The herbalist Severinus of Sankt Wendel later finds the book and is murdered by Malachi, who is acting on Jorge's orders. Malachi himself dies after returning the book to the finis Africae, having touched the poisoned pages. The book thus becomes a lethal object, a physical trap that kills anyone who attempts to read it with the necessary care.

The Confrontation and Destruction

In the climactic scene in the finis Africae, William of Baskerville confronts Jorge of Burgos, who has been guarding the book for decades. Jorge reveals that he has been protecting the library from the dangerous ideas contained in the book, which he believes would justify the art of mockery and lead to the destruction of all order. He argues that the book could prompt the idea that man can wish to have the abundance of the land of Cockaigne on earth, which he considers a diabolical reversal. When William accuses him of being the Devil, Jorge begins to tear the pages of the manuscript and eat them, consuming the book to prevent its ideas from spreading. In the ensuing struggle, a lamp is knocked over, setting the library on fire. Jorge throws the remains of the book into the flames, ensuring its complete destruction. The book is thus both the cause of the murders and the catalyst for the apocalyptic fire that destroys the abbey's library.

Thematic Significance: Laughter vs. Dogma

The lost book of Aristotle's Poetics II serves as the central symbol of the novel's thematic conflict between the liberating power of laughter and the oppressive force of dogmatic truth. Jorge of Burgos, the blind guardian of the library, represents a worldview that sees laughter as a weakness, a corruption of the flesh, and a threat to the fear of God that underpins social and religious order. He believes that the book, by making laughter an object of philosophy, could legitimize the reversal of the world, where the base is elevated and the serious is mocked. William of Baskerville, in contrast, sees laughter as a tool for inquiry, a means to confound the wicked and to make evident their foolishness. He argues that laughter can be a suitable instrument to undermine false authority. The book's destruction in the fire, and William's subsequent admission that he discovered the truth by mistake and that there is no order in the universe, underscores the novel's postmodern skepticism. The only truth that remains is the name of the rose, a nomen nudum, a sign without a stable referent. The book's physical annihilation mirrors the philosophical uncertainty that pervades the novel's conclusion.