Umberto Eco OMRI (5 Jan 1932 – 19 Feb 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, cultural critic, political and social commentator, and novelist. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory, and Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes. At the time of his death, he was an emeritus professor at the University of Bologna, where he taught for much of his life. Less