The shipwrecked voyagers landing on the beach in Cyprus were warmed on stage by means of a fire which we lit using a firework and the most potent aqua vitae, and it lasted a long while, to the amazement of the spectators.
While I was thus working backstage, my mind was busied with very different matters. To what were the gentlemen referring whom I had overheard saying that the Spanish Ambassador, Count Uzeda, had at last succeeded in convincing the Pope? By the sound of what they were saying, it seemed that he and others had put pressure on the dying Pope to induce him to do something of which Innocent XII was clearly not convinced. Concerning Uzeda, I knew only what I had read in the correspondence between Atto and the Connestabilessa: the SpanishAmbassador had transmitted to His Holiness the request for help from Charles II.
Whatever could they have wanted to convince him of? And who were the other "sly foxes" who were supposed to have worked so unscrupulously with Uzeda to persuade the old Pontiff to yield? The three gentlemen whom I had just overheard were sincerely sorry for the Pope, who was suffering and seemed no longer to have any power. Did not these words bring to mind similar considerations on the part of the Connestabilessa? She had written that the Pope was often reported as saying, "We are denied the dignity which is due to the Vicar of Christ and there is no care for us." Who dared thus ill-treat the successor of Saint Peter?
Lupus in fabula, one of the three gentlemen had whispered when Cardinal Spada appeared, whereupon the conversation had broken off suddenly. What did all that mean? That my most benign master, Cardinal Fabrizio, was perhaps one of the "sly foxes" in question?
"I am delighted to find that what the most learned Father Mabillon said about the libraries of Rome is still true, for they are still in the same excellent condition as when I first came to Italy many years ago," said Buvat enthusiastically.
After the performance, Abbot Melani had returned to his apartments, followed by myself, and had asked his secretary to report to him on what elements he had succeeded in gathering in the course of his research. The time had at last come to know what Abbot Melani's faithful servant had been up to in the course of his peregrinations across the city.
"Buvat, forget that Father Mabillon and tell me what you have succeeded in doing," Atto urged him.
The secretary examined a little pile of papers hastily annotated in minuscule handwriting.
"In the first place, I obtained the advice of Benedetto Millino, the former librarian of Christina of Sweden, who…"
"I am not interested in what he advised you. What did you find?" Buvat said that this was precisely what he was on the point of explaining: he had been to the library of La Sapienza, to the Angelica, to the Barberini Library at the Quattro Fontane, to those of the College of the Penitentiary at Saint Peter's, the College of the Minor Franciscan Fathers at San Giovanni in Laterano, then the Penitentiaries of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore; to the Vallicelliana near the Chiesa Nuova, the library of the Collegio Clementino, the Colonna or Sirleta, the libraries of Sant'Andrea della Valle of the Theatine Fathers and of Trinita dei Monti, belonging to the Minim Fathers of San Francesco di Paola, to that of the most Eminent Cardinal Casanate of happy memory, now taken over by the Dominican Fathers, as well as…
"Go on, go on. The main thing is that you have not set foot in the Jesuits' or the Vatican libraries. They are nests of spies and they would have registered and checked on everything."
"I did as you ordered me, Signor Abbot."
"And I hope that, in the third place, you abstained from visiting the private libraries of cardinals, like the Chigiana or the Pamphiliana."
"Yes indeed, Signor Abbot. That would have been far too visible, as you yourself did not fail to point out to me."
That triple abstinence had in fact cost him no little trouble, since in the Apostolic Vatican Library or that of the Jesuits, as well as in the libraries of cardinals' families, Buvat would have had far less difficulty in finding the manuscripts which he was looking for. Fortunately, showing his accreditation as a scribe at the Royal Library in Paris, he had at once been well received at the other great libraries which he had visited. He had been able to touch and even to turn the pages of a Greek codex eight centuries old containing the famous Commentary on the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar composed by Saint Hippolytus, Bishop of Oporto; then he had for the first time been able to consult the famous Antiquities of Pirro Ligorio in eighteen volumes; and also, the works of sacred and profane erudition of the Cavaliere Giacovacci and a Latin codex with the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon emended from the original. His palms had then touched with trembling the personal library of Saint Philip Neri at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, in which are to be found the Life of Saint Erasmus, Martyr written by Giovanni Soddiacono, a monk at Monte Cassino, who subsequently became pope under the name of Gelasius II (of which, Buvat stressed, the eighteenth volume contains, as is well known, the ancient Collation of Cresconio), a most important codex of the Venerable Bede on the Lunar Circle and the Six Ages of the World and the collections of Achille Stazio Portoghese, Giacomo Volponi da Adria and Vincenzo Bandalocchi, not to mention the famous repertories of the lawyer Ercole Ronconi.
But the most moving visit had been that to the library of the College of the Propaganda Fidei, famed for its printing press where, with magnanimous and providential zeal, and for the benefit of all nations, books are printed in no fewer than twenty-two languages. A special glory of this library, recounted Abbot Melani's secretary, is the most accurate set of indexes of the books in its possession, including the most unusual books printed in foreign nations, listed by languages, varieties of customs, strange religious usages and habits; writings in the most exotic characters, emblems, ciphers, hieroglyphics, colours; and those with mysterious lines traced on elephant's leather, pork rind, fish membranes and dragon's skin.
"Enough, Buvat, enough, damn you!" cursed Atto, beating his fist on his knee. "What do I care about books printed on fish skin? How is it that, whenever you have to do with books or manuscripts, you always allow yourself to be distracted?"
Silence descended upon our trio. Humiliated, Buvat said nothing. I was impressed by the number of libraries which the French scribe had visited; within a short space of time, he had been through a great part of the bibliographic resources of the city — admittedly situated a short distance from one another — which were universally known to be immense, thanks to the accumulation over the centuries of books both printed and manuscript by dozens of popes and cardinals. Clearly, only a boundless passion for letters and scripture could have inspired so extensive and detailed a search. What a pity, then, that Atto's secretary found it so difficult to pass from analysis to synthesis."Buvat, I sent you out to search through books because in this city, everyone talks about certain things yet no one knows what they are talking about. Report to me only on what I ordered you to investigate: the cerretani," the Abbot requested. "So, what have you to tell me about their secret language?"
"It is very difficult," answered Buvat, this time in a distinctly less enthusiastic tone of voice. "The catchpolls can, it is true, learn a few rudiments, but only regular daily practice can enable one to understand correctly what it is that they mutter to one another. It is an ancient language but, from time to time, when they realise that it is no longer impenetrable, they renovate it a little, with minor changes, just the minimum necessary to make it completely incomprehensible once more. Rigid cerretano tradition requires that their king, or Maggiorengo Generale, and only he, may dictate the new rules. He writes them with his own hand (for which reason he cannot be illiterate) and the script is read at a general meeting with representatives of all the sects, who then arrange to spread the new codex far and wide. Thus, for centuries, only they have spoken their language, nor can anyone inform against them, not even when they steal the military secrets of the realm and pass them to an enemy."