A short life of the author
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) was born on 5 January 1932 in Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy. He was a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and one of the most important intellectuals in postwar Europe.
Life and Career
Eco was a world-famous academic — his books on semiotics, aesthetics, and medieval philosophy were widely influential — before he published his first novel at forty-eight.
Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose, 1980) — a murder mystery set in a Benedictine monastery in 1327, solved by the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, involving a lost book of Aristotle’s Poetics — was a global bestseller. It is simultaneously a detective novel, a theological debate, a semiotic puzzle, and a meditation on the power of books.
Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault’s Pendulum, 1988) — about three editors at a vanity press who invent a conspiracy theory that becomes real — is his most intellectually ambitious novel. Baudolino (2000) — about a medieval liar and storyteller — is his most playful.
Major Works and Themes
Eco wrote about signs, interpretation, books, conspiracy, and the relationship between fiction and reality. His novels are learned, funny, and deeply engaged with the history of ideas.
Key Works
- The Name of the Rose (1980)
- Foucault’s Pendulum (1988)
Collecting Eco
Italian originals (Bompiani) are the primary collected form. Il nome della rosa first edition (1980) brings $200–$600. English translations (Harcourt) bring $30–$80. Eco died in 2016.