Prohibition against entering the library

The Prohibition against entering the library is the foundational rule of the unnamed abbey, enforced by the abbot and the librarian to protect the library's secrets and books from unauthorized access, and its violation is the central catalyst for the series of murders.

Nature and Enforcement of the Prohibition

The prohibition is absolute and applies to all monks, servants, and visitors. When William of Baskerville asks to visit the library, the abbot Abo immediately refuses, stating, "You can move freely through the whole abbey, as I have said. But not, to be sure, on the top floor of the Aedificium, the library." The abbot explains that the library was laid out on a plan that has remained obscure to all over the centuries, and only the librarian and his assistant know the secret of navigating the labyrinth. The librarian, Malachi of Hildesheim, is the sole person with the right to move through the labyrinth, to know where to find books and where to replace them, and to decide when and whether to give a volume to a monk who requests it. The abbot further justifies the rule by stating that not all truths are for all ears and that the library must be protected not only against mankind but also against nature, as a book is a fragile creature that suffers the wear of time. The prohibition is reinforced by the physical layout of the Aedificium: after compline, Malachi locks the outside doors, and the library itself is a terrestrial labyrinth designed to confuse and trap intruders, with mirrors, vision-inducing herbs, and hidden passages.

Consequences of Violation

The prohibition is the direct cause of the central mystery. The first victim, Adelmo of Otranto, likely gained access to the library through Berengar of Arundel, the assistant librarian, who used the secret as a means of extortion for an illicit relationship. Adelmo's subsequent suicide, driven by guilt and fear, sets off a chain of events. Venantius of Salvemec, having learned of the secret, steals the forbidden book from the finis Africae and is poisoned by the book's pages. Berengar, who retrieves the book after Venantius's death, is also poisoned. Malachi, who kills Severinus of Sankt Wendel to recover the book, is himself poisoned when he finally reads it. The abbot, who attempts to enter the finis Africae through a secret passage, is trapped and killed by Jorge of Burgos, the true master of the library's secrets. The prohibition, intended to preserve knowledge, instead creates a culture of secrecy, lust, and murder, culminating in the destruction of the entire library by fire.

Thematic Significance

The prohibition embodies the central conflict of the novel between the desire for knowledge and the fear of its consequences. Jorge of Burgos, the blind librarian who has secretly controlled the library for decades, defends the prohibition as a necessary defense against the corrupting power of laughter and doubt, which he believes are embodied in the lost second book of Aristotle's Poetics. He argues that the library must protect the truth from the dangerous, subversive ideas of comedy and mockery. William of Baskerville, in contrast, argues that the good of a book lies in its being read and that the library, by burying its books, has become a sink of iniquity. The prohibition, therefore, is not merely a rule but a symbol of the struggle between intellectual freedom and authoritarian control, between the open pursuit of truth and the paranoid defense of a single, unchallengeable orthodoxy. The destruction of the library is the ultimate consequence of this rigid prohibition, a physical manifestation of the spiritual and intellectual decay it fostered.