... , semiotic systems like the encoded map of the library and the purported plan of the murder sequence, but also of correspondingly arbitrary sign systems like numerology, iconography, mathematics and measurement, cryptography, and language itself, or better yet multiple languages, including the spoken word, the language of gems, of flowers, of the landscape, and of gesture. The fundamental tension in the novel is between those, like the inquisitor Bernardo Gui, Jorge de Burgos, Ubertino of Casale, or Adso in old age and that rare medieval ... creating a very readable largely biographical ...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate