A comic adaptation of a scene from The Name of the Rose. In a scriptorium, light beaming through the arches, William of Baskerville says: "I have been told that one of your best illuminators died recently. The abbot has spoken to me a great deal of his art. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?"

The librarian Malachi responds: "Because of his youth, Adelmo of Otranto worked only on marginalia. He had a very lively imagination and from known things he was able to compose unknown and surprising things, as one might join a human body to an equine neck." Malachi points to the empty desk, an unfinished page still on it. "His books are over there. Nobody has yet touched his desk."

William and his apprentice Adso of Melk walk over to it and observe with curiosity. Adso leans over to pick up some of the previously finished pages, and both he and William gasp at what they see.

There proceeded a discourse of falsehood on a topsy-turvy universe: the pages' margins run wild with strange creatures. Ducks flying on bat's wings, men with horse's heads, quadrupeds with infinitely long, knotted necks, hares that chase after dogs, fish with arms, monkeys with horns, gryphons, cows with butterfly wings, two-headed men. Adso and the others observing laugh with joy and awe. Adso pauses in his laughing when he spots something else.

The narration reads: There was too an exquisite book of hours, so incredibly small that it would fit into the palm of the hand. Adso opens it, squinting to see the tiny pictures, but is still awed by the continual sights: sirens, stags that fly on bird's wings, lovers kissing wantonly right under sacred verses.

"Babewyn," William says. "So they are called in my islands."

Malachi replies: "Babouins, that is what they call them in Gaul. Adelmo learned his art in your country, although he studied also in France. Baboons, that is to say: monkeys from Africa. Figures of an inverted world, where houses stand on the tip of a steeple and the earth is above the sky."

Malachi's words remind Adso of something, and he speaks them aloud: "Aller wunder si geswigen, das erde himel hât überstigen, daz sult ir vür ein wunder wigen."

Malachi, recognizing the verses, continues the verse: "Erd ob un himel unter, das sult ir hân besunder, vür aller wunder ein wunder. Good for you, Adso." He then speaks to the broader audience of monks who have crowded around Adelmo's desk to admire the art. "In fact, these images tell of that country where you arrive mounted on a blue goose, where hawks are found that catch fish in a stream, bears that pursue falcons in the sky, lobsters that fly with the doves, and three giants that are caught in a trap and bitten by a cock."

He ends his words with a smile as the crowd laughs and resumes admiring Adelmo's pages. However, the lighthearted scene is interrupted by words from a newcomer: "Verba vana aut risui apta non loqui."