Review of "Baudolino"

Baudolino is a book by the celebrated Italian author Umberto Eco, published in 2000.

It is at the same time high fantasy as removed from reality as it can be, and an extremely accurate, realist, depiction of 12th century Europe.

I mean, yeah, confusing description isn’t it? Well, but that’s what makes the book amazing, why I love it so much.

It taught me a lot about European history. It’s teaching through example. Reading Baudolino is living life like in the 12th century. I was absolutely unaware of Frederick I. The French (and visibly French-speaking Switzerland) do not like the idea of Frederick I, it rattles the fundational national myth of France. Charlemagne, is of course Freench, for French people. While for German people, he’s German. It underlies, in fact, the eternal rivalry between France and Germany, which only ended recently with the creation of the European Steel and Coal community.

Frederick I calls himself the “Emperor of the Holly German Roman Empire”, and his “legitimacy” flows from his ancestry, that includes Charlemagne.

Indeed, he’s a great conqueror, the Empire encompasses all of northern central Europe, a large part of what is nowdays France, the north of Italy, and what will later become Austria. But his legitimacy is questioned outside of his homeland. Especially in northern Italy, where most of the plot occurs. Northern Italy isn’t a unit, but a set of rival cities, with already powerful bourgeoisies. They can easily fend off assaults from the Empire, unless other cities decide to join force with the Empire. Which they often do. Frederick is an astute diplomat, capable of making compromises and distribute privileges to build alliances.

But those alliances, in the eyes of the cities, are only transactional. As soon as the power balance changes, (ie: when the troups of the Empire move out of sight) the even small set of obligations they signed up in the alliance are forgotten.

Almost each battle led by Frederick in Italy find on both side a seemingly random new set of city states of Italy. People who fought together, two months later fight against each other, and reversly.

This is why Frederick desperates for some sort of historical legitimacy. Being crowned by the pope, as Charlemagne did, would be ideal. Frederick wants the benediction of the pope, but at the same time, in competition with the pope for the control of the Italian peninsula, does not want to recognize him any authority.

That’s the historical context.

The story itself follows Baudolino, son of an Italian peasant, who became advisor to Frederick. As he gets an education in latin, Baudolino hears from his mentor of Prester John.

Prester John is a legendary monk at the head of a cornucopial christian kingdom south of Judea. A reality for his mentor, Baudolino himself doubt of the factual existance of Prester John.

In actuallity, there is indeed christianity going on in Africa at the time. Both the coptic orthodox church and the Tewahedo in Ethiopia and Eritrea do exist, but are a far cry from the Prester John kingdom, covered in gold and precious stones.

Reality doesn’t mater anyway. Prester John is just a nice story, and Baudolino build up on it. He keeps him in the back of his mind for his whole life, as a tribute to his mentor.

Baudolino does love stories, and making up stories. As the book unfolds, Baudolino invents new myths through his deeds and tellings.

During the “deconstruction” of the city of Milan – a punishion inflicted on the city after its defeat against the siege led by Frederick, consisting of the unbuilding of every building in the city (this did actually happen) – Baudolino wonders into one of the 8 churches the deconstructors leaves intact. He gets told by a monk the location of remains of three persons, the presumed relics of the Three Wise Men. The monks admits that he is relatively convinced that they are fake, and hid them by fear of fuelling devotion to fake relics.

But this is of no concern to Baudolino. He sends them to Hannover as authentic relics.

We learn also of the fundation of the city of Alexandria (northern Italy, I’ll call it Alessandria now). Which happens to be Eco’s birth place.

Indeed, the city was founded in 1168, by locals and Genovan bourgeois, to protect trade routes through the Tanaro river against Frederick’s empire.

But soon, Genova allies itself with Frederick, while Alessandria (named after the pope Alexander III) keeps is alegence to the pope. According to empire rule, the founding of Alessandria is illegal, it must be demolished. Hence, starts a very long siege on the city. Through this, Eco retells of the funding myth of the city. Which I won’t relate here.

This is but a tinny fraction of the events of the first half of the book. In this, we discover that the past is a mix of facts and legends, sometimes so interwinded that it’s impossible to separate fantasy from history.

In fact, one of the most amazing twist of the book, occuring at the exact middle underlies specifically this lack of boundary between fantasy and reality. I don’t want to spoil it, but it really blew my mind.

Eco tells us that information is indeed separate from its intent. Be the information malevolent, fantastic, satirical or factual. In the end, what matters is how people understand it.

Take this for example. Baudolino and his friends search the Graal. They try to make up a relic that could be the Graal.

But how should the Graal look like? It is at the same time a precious cup that gives innimaginable powers and the cup used to gather the blood of the christ, by logic, it should be humble and weak.

But Baudolino, unlike the knights of the round table, finds the Graal. Where? At the table of his dying father. It is the simple wooden cup by which he feeds his loved and widowed father in the last weeks of his life. By virtue of its usage, the cup reveals itself as the Graal. And at this, the Graal is not fake, it’s as true as the one the knights of the round table search. And like a knight, Baudolino didn’t find the Graal by searching it, but by stumbling on it, living through a challenge that tested his virtue.

The book is powerful, it is a tool of learning. I now know so much more on history and mythology (talmuldic, islamic, gothic). But, especially, I now know much more about the nature of myth and history. Lies become reality, reality becomes myth, people convince themselves of fantasies they themselves made up.

The last chapter of the book gave me chills, if I close my eyes, I still have a vivid picture of Baudolino leaving on the back of a horse, toward the east, in the quest for the mythical kingdom of John.