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Ecolocation

Kevin Wald

Both the title of the puzzle and the name "Gulielmus Baskervilli" (Latin for William of Baskerville) are clues that this puzzle refers to Umberto Eco's mystery novel The Name Of The Rose. In that book, there is a library consisting of a set of interconnected rooms, each with an assigned letter; these rooms constitute a map of the world, with the Latin names of various countries spelled out in consecutive letters. (See http://www.themodernword.com/eco/images/haft_library.gif for a picture.)

The map shown is the set of rooms corresponding to ANGLIA (England) in Eco's map, subdivided into lettered cubicles; the Latin names of various English cities are spelled out in consecutive letters. The Latin to the left of the 10x10 grid consists of clues to cities in the grid:

The Latin above the 10x10 grid consists of clues to sequences of numbers, thus supplying one number for each column in the grid:

Each number 1-59 is in a grid square, at the intersection of the row for some city X and the column for some number Y; in the map, the Yth letter of the name of city X is a cubicle with exactly one intercubicle wall. If you break through that wall (as hinted at in the intro quote), there is a letter on the other side; taking these letters grouped and punctuated as shown below the grid, you get:

  IN NOMEN AD SMOOTUM XX, "DER"
  INSERE, ET LINGUAS IN N ET
  ROSAS IN A IN N COMMUTA

That is, "Into the name near Smoot 20, insert 'der', and exchange the tongues in N and the roses in A in N."

Near the "20" Smoot marking on the eastern walkway on the Harvard Bridge is a plaque in honor of Harry Houdini, which also mentions his real name Ehrich Weiss. If you:

then you get the transformation Ehrich Weiss -> Ehrich der Weiss -> Eric the White -> ERIC THE RED, which is the answer.