Umberto Eco

Let us join the world in paying tribute to Umberto Eco, medieval scholar and novelist, who died recently. He was 84.

Born in Alessandria, Italy, Eco studied medieval philosophy and literature at the University of Turin, In 2008, he was asked about his interest in the Middle Ages: "I would say that it’s because the period is exactly the opposite of the way people imagine it. To me, they were not the Dark Ages. They were a luminous time, the fertile soil out of which would spring the Renaissance. A period of chaotic and effervescent transition—the birth of the modern city, of the banking system, of the university, of our modern idea of Europe, with its languages, nations, and cultures."

Eco continued his academic career in Italy, and in 1959 published Sviluppo dell’estetica medievale (translated into English in 1985 as Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages), which summarized his views on medieval aesthetic ideas. His academic career flourished as he took on numerous other subjects, including media studies, semiotics and anthropology. He also taught at Columbia University and Harvard University, before retiring as professor emeritus at the University of Bologna in 2008.

Eco once said, “I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels.” His novels, however, gained him worldwide fame, beginning with The Name of the Rose, which was first published in Italian in 1980. Soon translated into other languages, the work sold more than 14 million copies and was made into a Hollywood film. Set in in Italian abbey during the year 1327, it follows a monk named William of Baskerville as he tries to deal with both heresy and murder at the monastery.  As one reviewer commented, “although the work stands on its own as a murder mystery, it is more accurately seen as a questioning of ‘truth’ from theological, philosophical, scholarly, and historical perspectives.”