Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose is arguably the most famous medieval murder mystery. Both the book and the film were hits, and did much to bring attention to the lives of medieval monks. But, as with most things, truth is often stranger than fiction.
Join us on March 26th at 5:15 p.m. in the Richard Macksey Seminar Room on M-level of the BLC for the next “Faculty in Focus” lecture, sponsored by the Winston Tabb Research Center for Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives, which features historian Elizabeth Archibald, a lecturer in the Department of Humanities at the Peabody Institute. She’ll talk about her research on “‘Punctured by Pencils, He Died a Bitter Death’: A Medieval Schoolroom Tale of Professorial Murder.” Illustrations from this grisly tale will be on display.
Some of the books that Dr. Archibald will reference in her talk are part of our collection. The historian Livy’s Ab urbe condita describes the death of a Faliscan teacher, while William of Malmesbury’s Gesta pontificum Anglorum describes the death of Irish philosopher and theologian, John Scottus Eriugena, by styli at the hands of his students.