Umberto Eco was an Italian novelist, essayist, literary critic,
philosopher and semiotician. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1980
historical mystery novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), an
intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval
studies and literary theory. He later wrote other novels, including Il pendolo
di Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum) and L'isola del giorno prima (The Island of
the Day Before). His novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery), released
in 2010, was a best-seller. Eco also wrote academic texts, children's books and
essays. He was founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione (Department of Media
Studies) at the University of the Republic of San Marino, President of the
Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici (Graduate School for the Study of the
Humanities), University of Bologna, member of the Accademia dei Lincei and an
honorary fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. Eco was born in the city of
Alessandria, in Piedmont in northern Italy. Eco died this week at his Milanese
home of pancreatic cancer, aged of 84.
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