Only God can create that which never existed

but

mankind is curating the past to the present.

he Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

The Name of the Rose is a perfect example of intertextuality within a novel

One of the first examples of intertextuality within The Name of the Rose is the name of the main character himself, William of Baskerville. This is a combination of both a character-type and novel that Eco himself has a great fondness for, namely, Sherlock Holmes in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. Eco’s use of Doyle’s characters does not stop with just an homage paid by way of a name, though. Interactions between the two ‘detectives’, Adso and William, can be seen as more intertextuality. Adso is often referred to by William as “my dear Adso” throughout this work. Further, upon a reading of The Hound of the Baskervilles, the same investigative style and inferential structure that is used in The Name of the Rose will be found as well. This extends to the dry humour, ambiguous relationship between Sherlock (William) and Watson (Adso), and even the physical locations, such as the castle and Baskerville Hall, which are reproduced in almost complete exactness by Eco.