Salvatore of Montferrat Character Analysis in The Name of the Rose

Salvatore speaks a strange combination of multiple languages, including Latin, an Italian dialect, and Provençale. Adso describes his face and body as “bestial.” Like Remigio, he was a follower of Fra Dolcino and has taken sanctuary in the abbey. He is arrested by Bernard Gui for using superstitious rituals to try to cast a love spell on a girl from the village, and Remigio accuses him of collaborating in the murders. His bad Latin accidentally gives William and Adso the key to opening the finis Africae: he refers to a horse as “of the third” instead of “the third,” which helps William understand Venantius’s riddle. Salvatore’s bizarre language demonstrates that even confusing and incoherent signs can have meaning.

Salvatore of Montferrat Quotes in The Name of the Rose

The The Name of the Rose quotes below are all either spoken by Salvatore of Montferrat or refer to Salvatore of Montferrat. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

This is the illusion of heresy. The faith a movement proclaims doesn't count: what counts is the hope it offers. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. Every battle against heresy wants only to keep the leper as he is.

Related Characters: William of Baskerville (speaker), Salvatore of Montferrat, Fra Dolcino

Page Number and Citation: 218

Explanation and Analysis:

Adso talks to Salvatore about his days as a follower of various popular religious movements. Salvatore says that he joined these groups after fleeing the poverty and starvation of his native village. Adso then finds William and asks him to explain the “accidental differences” between heretical groups, and between what is heretical and what is orthodox. William tells Adso that he thinks these movements are a symptom of larger social ills: “scratch the heresy and you will find the leper.” What he means by this is that the majority of those who follow the reformers are those who are social Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui

Salvatore of Montferrat Character Timeline in The Name of the Rose

The timeline below shows where the character Salvatore of Montferrat appears in The Name of the Rose. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Adso’s reverie is broken by the appearance of Salvatore of Montferrat, a vagabond-looking monk and former Franciscan who speaks an odd combination of several... (full context)

...wounds of the lord, throw away your books.” Before they part, William asks Ubertino about Salvatore and Remigio: Ubertino admits that they were once followers of a “heretical” group as well. (full context)

William and Adso witness an argument between Salvatore and Remigio, who call each other heretics, prompting Adso to reflect on the difficulty of... (full context)

Adso goes to the kitchen to eat and encounters Salvatore, who recounts his days as a follower of various popular religious movements. He explains how... (full context)

...are the simple: “first comes the condition of being simple, then the heresy.” People like Salvatore—who are poor, outcast, and uneducated, like “lepers”—are easy prey for these movements because they are... (full context)

...each word. After this, they break for a meal, and Adso goes and talks to Salvatore, who claims that he can make the third horse (“tertius equi”) run faster by casting... (full context)

...streets shouting “penitenziagite!” (a vernacular translation of the Latin for “do penance”). Adso has heard Salvatore say this exact phrase. Gherardo came into conflict with the church for his preaching, which... (full context)

...in to speak with Severinus, but quickly leaves when he sees William and Adso there. Salvatore accounts for the presence of the girl in the kitchen, confirming William’s theory that he... (full context)

...he has been passed over and should have been made librarian, instead of the foreigners. Salvatore tells Adso that he plans to cast a spell to make the village girls fall... (full context)

...library, however, they do see the girl from the village. Bernard has arrested her and Salvatore, since Salvatore had been using a ritual involving a black cat to try to cast... (full context)

Bernard puts Remigio on trial, accusing him of murder and of having known Fra Dolcino. Salvatore is brought into the court, having clearly been tortured. He tells Bernard that he met... (full context)

...murders. But when Bernard threatens him with torture, Remigio falsely confesses to the murders, naming Salvatore as his accomplice—an act of revenge for Salvatore’s betrayal. Bernard sentences Salvatore and Remigio to... (full context)

...sends Adso to bed. Adso remarks on the unfairness of the “simple folk” (like Remigio, Salvatore, and the girl) suffering for the sins of the powerful. (full context)

...“deaf and blind ruin.” Ubertino tells Adso that this is the price of sin. Suddenly, Salvatore enters, and Adso imagines that he is inside a great flame, but is no longer... (full context)

...leaves the chapel, finding William saying goodbye to the Franciscans. He hears that the prisoners (Salvatore, Remigio, and the girl) have already left. He decides that it’s better this way, since... (full context)

...to get in. They visit the stables, where Adso idly remarks on a comment that Salvatore had made about a horse, calling it “tertius equi”—in his bad Latin, he said “the... (full context)

Salvatore of Montferrat Character Analysis

Salvatore of Montferrat Quotes in The Name of the Rose

Third Day Quotes

Salvatore of Montferrat Character Timeline in The Name of the Rose