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Country Cheese Co., originally uploaded by mrwilloby.

This one’s for Jessica: The latest search to bring someone to my site came from Yahoo! The search term was “where is a nerd”.

So this novel I’m reading, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, is supposed to be pretty high-level stuff. If I step back and think about it I suppose it is. Very dense on the medieval history which is right up my alley. I didn’t know exactly how much it would be until I got into it though. The book practically centers around a topic that I did about a month’s worth of research on for a paper a year ago. I was going to write about heresy in the late middle ages, specifically the Waldensians. All the various heresies of the 14th century are touched upon in the book along with all the major characters in them.

I felt odd today when I was reading the beginning of a chapter. The abbey where the story is taking place is about to receive an envoy from the Pope to settle some differences. It is suspenseful because the abbey is more aligned with the Emporer than the pope and so relations are delicate.

The abbot was waiting for us with a grim, worried look. He was holding a paper in his hand.

“Who is it?”

“Bernard Gui, or Bernardo Guidoni, whichever you choose to call him.”

My reaction right after this was exactly like those of the characters. I stopped for a moment in shock. Bernard Gui the inquisitor! I knew exactly who the guy was without any explanation from the book. He actually wrote a manual for identifying and trying heretics. I’ve read a good portion of it. Then I thought about it for a moment. Very few people would have any idea about this guy. I wonder if this book is absolutely more enjoyable to me because I can follow everything and pick up all the details about the background.

Anyway, I am really enjoying it, and it would probably be a good mystery novel for anyone else too.