Eco, Umberto (1932- )

Italian writer and literary critic. He is most known for his ‘philosophical thriller’ Il nom della rosa/ The Name of the Rose (1980; filmed 1986), set in a 14th-century English monastery.

His other novels include Il pendolo di Foucault/Foucault's Pendulum (1988), L'isola del giorno prima/The Island of the Day Before (1994), Baudolino (2000), and La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana/ The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2004). He is also a prolific writer of essays, and compilations include The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (1979) and Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition (1999). He has taught semiology, the study of signs and symbols, at the University of Bologna, Italy.