Jorge of Burgos and the secret of the library

Jorge of Burgos and the secret of the library is the central, hidden relationship that drives the entire plot of The Name of the Rose. Jorge, the blind, ancient, and revered monk, has for decades been the true, secret master of the abbey's library. He has manipulated the succession of librarians and abbots to ensure that the library's most dangerous secret—the sole surviving copy of Aristotle's lost second book of the Poetics, a treatise on comedy and laughter—remains hidden in the inaccessible room called the finis Africae. Jorge's fanatical belief that this book would destroy Christian civilization by legitimizing laughter and doubt leads him to poison its pages, and then to commit a series of murders—orchestrating the deaths of Venantius, Berengar, Severinus, Malachi, and Abbot Abo—to prevent anyone from reading it. His final confrontation with William of Baskerville in the finis Africae reveals his motives and ends with Jorge devouring the poisoned pages and starting a fire that destroys the entire library, an act of apocalyptic self-destruction that fulfills his own grim prophecies.

The Nature of the Secret and Jorge's Guardianship

The secret Jorge protects is not merely a book but a philosophical bomb: Aristotle's second book of the Poetics, which argues that laughter is a positive, rational force capable of revealing truth and purifying the passions. Jorge believes this idea is the ultimate heresy. He tells William that if laughter were elevated to an art and a philosophy, it would destroy the fear of God and the Devil, which is the foundation of the Church's power. "Laughter frees the villein from fear of the Devil," Jorge explains, "because in the feast of fools the Devil also appears poor and foolish, and therefore controllable. But this book could teach that freeing oneself of the fear of the Devil is wisdom." He sees the book as a weapon that would allow the "simple" to overturn the established order, transforming the world into a carnival where all hierarchy and meaning are lost. For Jorge, this is not a theological debate but a war for the soul of Christendom, and he has waged it for decades from his position as the library's hidden master.

The Means of Control: Manipulation and Poison

Jorge's control over the library is absolute and exercised through a network of manipulated figures. He had a man he could trust elected abbot, and as librarian he first had Robert of Bobbio named, whom he could direct, and then Malachi of Hildesheim, who needed Jorge's help and never took a step without consulting him. For forty years, Jorge was the true master of the abbey. When the threat to his secret became acute—with Adelmo, Venantius, and Berengar all showing dangerous curiosity—Jorge acted decisively. He stole a powerful poison from Severinus's infirmary years earlier, keeping it for just such an occasion. He then applied the poison to the pages of the forbidden book, creating a trap that would kill anyone who read it with the avid, physical engagement of a scholar—licking their fingers to turn the pages. This poison, which left black stains on the fingers and tongue, killed Venantius and Berengar, and later Malachi, who had been sent by Jorge to retrieve the book. Jorge's method was elegant and diabolical: the victim poisoned himself through his own desire for knowledge.

The Confrontation in the Finis Africae

When William and Adso finally penetrate the finis Africae on the seventh night, they find Jorge waiting for them in the darkness, seated behind a table with the book before him. Jorge has already killed Abbot Abo, luring him into a secret passage and then breaking the mechanism, trapping him to suffocate. The confrontation that follows is a duel of worldviews. William reconstructs the entire chain of events, and Jorge confirms his deductions with a kind of grim satisfaction, admiring William's intellect even as he prepares to destroy him. Jorge reveals his motive with terrifying clarity: he has acted to protect the world from a truth that would destroy it. He argues that the book on comedy would justify the "tongue of the simple" as a vehicle of wisdom, would make the marginal central, and would erase the fear that is the foundation of all order. "The Devil is not the Prince of Matter," William retorts; "the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. You are the Devil, Jorge, and like the Devil you live in darkness."

The Destruction of the Book and the Library

Defeated in argument but not in will, Jorge enacts a final, terrible act. He begins to tear the poisoned pages from the book and devour them, laughing for the first time. "You were awaiting the sound of the seventh trumpet, were you not?" he taunts. "Now I seal that which was not to be said, in the grave I become." In the ensuing struggle, the lamp is knocked over, and the fire spreads rapidly through the dry parchments of the library. Jorge, having consumed the poison, dies, but his act of destruction is complete. The library, the greatest in Christendom, burns for three days and three nights. William, watching the conflagration, reflects that Jorge's face, "deformed by hatred of philosophy," was the true face of the Antichrist—one born not from evil but from "excessive love of God or of the truth." Jorge's secret, and his fanatical guardianship of it, ultimately annihilates everything he sought to preserve.