Confrontation in the Finis Africae

The confrontation in the finis Africae is the novel's central crisis, the moment when the seven days of murder, investigation, and theological debate converge on a single, forbidden object: the only surviving copy of Aristotle's second book of the Poetics. William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk, having finally deciphered the secret of the library's labyrinth, enter the hidden heptagonal room on the seventh night to find Jorge of Burgos waiting for them in the darkness. The blind old monk, who has been the abbey's true master for forty years, has already killed Abbot Abo by trapping him in the secret passage, and he now confronts the two intruders with the book that has cost so many lives.

The Revelation of the Hidden Master

Jorge confesses to having orchestrated the library's defenses for decades, using his authority as the oldest monk and the confessor of many to control the succession of librarians. He had Robert of Bobbio appointed, then Malachi of Hildesheim, both men he could direct, and he ensured that the abbot, Abo, remained dependent on his guidance. The Italian monks who resented this foreign domination—led by the senile Alinardo of Grottaferrata—had long suspected a conspiracy but were dismissed as mad. Jorge admits that he poisoned the pages of the Aristotle manuscript with a substance stolen years earlier from Severinus of Sankt Wendel's infirmary, knowing that anyone who read it with the avid curiosity of a scholar would moisten their fingers to turn the pages and ingest the poison. Venantius of Salvemec died this way after stealing the book; Berengar of Arundel died after taking it to the infirmary to read; and Malachi died after retrieving it from Severinus's laboratory, having been told by Jorge that it held "the power of a thousand scorpions." Jorge also reveals that he manipulated Malachi into killing Severinus, feeding the jealous librarian's suspicions about Berengar's relationship with the herbalist.

The Nature of the Forbidden Book

William, having reconstructed the book's contents from other texts, describes it to Jorge: Aristotle's second book of the Poetics treats comedy, laughter, and the ridiculous. It argues that laughter is proper to man and can serve as a vehicle for truth, using witty riddles and unexpected metaphors to reveal things "differently from the way they are, as if it were lying, it actually obliges us to examine them more closely." Jorge's horror at this book is not merely theological but existential. He sees it as a threat to the entire edifice of Christian authority, because it would elevate the laughter of the simple—the peasant's carnival, the fool's license—into a philosophical principle. If laughter can be used to question truth, then the fear of God, which Jorge considers the foundation of all law and order, would be dissolved. "This book could teach that freeing oneself of the fear of the Devil is wisdom," Jorge declares. He envisions a world where the marginal jests of the debauched imagination leap to the center, where the Arimaspi sit on the throne of Peter and Blemmyae inhabit the monasteries, a world without hierarchy or fear, which he identifies with the reign of the Antichrist.

The Destruction of the Book and the Fire

As Jorge speaks, he begins to tear the pages of the manuscript and stuff them into his mouth, consuming the book as if it were a Eucharist of damnation. William tries to stop him, but Jorge, guided by the heat of the lamp, extinguishes the light and flees into the darkness of the labyrinth. William and Adso pursue him through the rooms of the library, guided by the sounds of his movement and the tearing of paper. When they corner him in a room of the YSPANIA section, Jorge seizes the lamp and hurls it onto a pile of books, igniting a fire that spreads with terrifying speed through the dry parchment and ancient bindings. The library, which had been a labyrinth of knowledge, becomes a labyrinth of flame. William and Adso are forced to flee, leaving Jorge to die in the conflagration he has started. The fire consumes the entire Aedificium, then spreads to the church, the stables, and the other buildings of the abbey, reducing the greatest library in Christendom to ashes over three days and three nights.

The Aftermath and William's Reflection

In the ruins of the abbey, William reflects on the meaning of the catastrophe. He admits to Adso that his investigation was built on a false pattern—the apocalyptic sequence of the seven trumpets of Revelation—and that he arrived at the truth only through a series of accidents and misinterpretations. "There was no plot," he says, "and I discovered it by mistake." The order he had sought to impose on the world was an illusion, a net or a ladder that must be thrown away once it has served its purpose. The only truth, he concludes, is that there is no order in the universe, and that the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to free themselves from the insane passion for truth that drove Jorge to murder and self-destruction. The confrontation in the finis Africae thus becomes the novel's ultimate demonstration of the conflict between the desire for absolute certainty and the liberating power of doubt, between the grimness of dogma and the laughter that can dissolve it.