'The Name of the Rose' author Umberto Eco dies at 84

Umberto Eco started working a novel that set the world’s imagination on fire “prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk.”

The Italian author and academic who intrigued, puzzled and delighted readers worldwide with his best-selling medieval thriller, The Name of the Rose, died at home in Milan on Friday evening after a battle with cancer, according to a family member who asked not to be identified. His death was earlier confirmed by his American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Eco’s contribution to Italian literature was lauded by political and cultural figures alike. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday at Milan’s Sforza Castle, a grand citadel which is overlooked by Eco’s book-filled house.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini described Eco as “young and volcanic until the last day,” and called him “a giant who brought Italian literature to the whole world.” European Parliament. President Martin Schulz said “Eco leaves a heritage of culture, ideas, novels and teachings which will be everlasting.” Italian author Elisabetta Scarbi, who founded a publishing house last year with Eco and other Italian writers, called him “a great living encyclopedia” who taught young people “the capacity to love discoveries and marvels.”

Author of books ranging from novels to scholarly tomes to essay collections, Eco was fascinated with the obscure and the mundane, and his books were both engaging narratives and philosophical and intellectual exercises. The bearded, heavy-set scholar, critic and novelist took on the esoteric theory of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols in language; popular culture icons like James Bond; and the technical languages of the Internet.

The Name of the Rose made an international celebrity, especially after the medieval thriller set in a monastery was made into a film starring Sean Connery in 1986. The Name of the Rose sold millions of copies, a feat for a narrative filled with partially translated Latin quotes and puzzling musings on the nature of symbols.

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