Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian polymath, distinguished as a medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In the English-speaking world, he is primarily recognized for his acclaimed 1980 novel, The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery that integrates semiotics within a fictional narrative alongside biblical exegesis, medieval scholarship, and literary theory. His 1988 novel, Foucault's Pendulum, further explores analogous thematic elements.

Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. 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, as well as Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes.

Eco maintained a prolific literary output throughout his life, encompassing children's books, translations from French and English, and notably, a twice-monthly newspaper column titled "La Bustina di Minerva" (Minerva's Matchbook) in the magazine L'Espresso, commencing in 1985. His final column, a critical appraisal of Francesco Hayez's Romantic paintings, was published on 27 January 2016. Upon his passing, he held the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of Bologna, where he dedicated a significant portion of his career to teaching. In the 21st century, Eco has garnered sustained recognition for his 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism," in which he delineated fourteen characteristic properties he posited as constitutive of fascist ideologies.

Early Life and Education

Eco came into the world on 5 January 1932, in Alessandria, a city located in Italy's northern Piedmont region. His formative years were shaped by the pervasive influence of Italian fascism across the region. At the age of ten, he was awarded the First Provincial Award of Ludi Juveniles for his affirmative response to a youth fascist writing prompt asking, "Should we die for the glory of Mussolini and the immortal destiny of Italy?" His father, Giulio, who was one of thirteen children, worked as an accountant prior to being conscripted for service in three conflicts. During World War II, Umberto and his mother, Giovanna (Bisio), relocated to a secluded village within the Piedmontese mountains. This village achieved liberation in 1945, subsequently exposing him to American comic books, the European Resistance movement, and the Holocaust. Eco received a Salesian education and frequently referenced the order and its founder in his literary works and interviews.

In his later years, Eco developed a conviction that his family name originated as an acronym for ex caelis oblatus (Latin for "a gift from the heavens"). Consistent with contemporary practice, this name was bestowed upon his grandfather, a foundling, by a municipal official. In a 2011 interview, Eco recounted that a friend discovered this acronym on a list of Jesuit acronyms within the Vatican Library, thereby revealing its probable etymology.

Despite his father's encouragement to pursue a legal career, Umberto enrolled at the University of Turin (UNITO), where he completed his thesis on the aesthetics of the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas, under the guidance of Luigi Pareyson, culminating in the award of his Laurea degree in philosophy in 1954.

Career

Medieval Aesthetics and Philosophy (1954–1968)

Subsequent to his graduation, Eco was employed by the national broadcasting corporation Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) in Milan, where he produced diverse cultural programming. Upon the release of his inaugural book in 1956, he assumed the role of assistant lecturer at his alma mater. In 1958, Eco departed from both RAI and the University of Turin to fulfill an eighteen-month mandatory military service term within the Italian Army.

In 1959, subsequent to his re-entry into academia, Eco received an invitation from Valentino Bompiani to edit a series titled "Idee nuove" (New Ideas) for Bompiani's eponymous publishing house in Milan. The publisher reportedly became aware of Eco through a concise pamphlet comprising cartoons and verse, Filosofi in libertà (Philosophers in Freedom, or Liberated Philosophers), which had originally been issued in a limited edition of 550 copies under the James Joyce-inspired pseudonym, Daedalus.

During the same year, Eco released his second book, Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale (The Development of Medieval Aesthetics), a scholarly monograph that expanded upon his earlier research concerning Aquinas. After obtaining his libera docenza in aesthetics in 1961, he was elevated to a lectureship in the same discipline in 1963, subsequently departing from the University of Turin in 1964 to assume a lectureship in Architecture at the University of Milan.

Early Writings on Semiotics and Popular Culture (1961–1964)

Among his contributions aimed at a general readership, Eco's short essay "Phenomenology of Mike Bongiorno," a critical analysis of a popular but unrefined quiz show host, was published in 1961 within a series of Eco's articles on mass media for the Pirelli tire manufacturer's magazine. Within this essay, Eco posited that "[Bongiorno] does not provoke inferiority complexes, despite presenting himself as an idol, and the public acknowledge him, by being grateful to him and loving him. He represents an ideal that nobody need strive to reach because everyone is already at his level." The essay gained considerable public attention due to extensive media coverage and was subsequently incorporated into the collection Diario minimo (1963).

Throughout this period, Eco commenced the rigorous development of his concepts concerning the "open" text and semiotics, producing numerous essays on these topics. In 1962, he published Opera aperta (translated into English as "The Open Work"). In this seminal work, Eco contended that literary texts are dynamic fields of meaning, rather than linear sequences, and are perceived as open, intrinsically dynamic, and psychologically interactive domains. Literary works that restrict potential interpretation to a singular, unambiguous trajectory—termed the closed text—are considered less enriching. Conversely, texts that foster the most active interplay among mind, society, and lived experience (categorized as open texts) are deemed the most vibrant and superior, though Eco's primary emphasis was not on evaluative terminology. Eco formulated these perspectives through his studies in language and semiotics, distinguishing his approach from those rooted in psychology or historical analysis, exemplified by theorists like Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauss, respectively.

In his 1964 book Apocalittici e integrati, lit.'The Apocalyptic and the Integrated', Eco further extended his examination of popular culture by analyzing the phenomenon of mass communication through a sociological lens.

Visual Communication and Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare (1965–1975)

Between 1965 and 1969, Eco served as Professor of Visual Communications at the University of Florence. There, he delivered the seminal lecture "Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare," which introduced the impactful concept of "semiological guerrilla" and significantly shaped the theoretical framework for subversive tactics against dominant mass media culture, including phenomena like guerrilla television and culture jamming. The essay also employed terms such as "communications guerrilla warfare" and "cultural guerrilla." This essay was subsequently compiled into Eco's volume, Faith in Fakes.

Eco's methodology in semiotics is frequently designated as "interpretative semiotics." His theoretical framework was first comprehensively articulated in the book La struttura assente (1968; literally: The Absent Structure).

In 1969, he departed to assume the role of Professor of Semiotics at Milan Polytechnic. His inaugural year there included a visiting professorship at New York University. By 1971, he accepted an associate professorship at the University of Bologna, and in 1972, he served as a Fulbright scholar at Northwestern University. Subsequent to the publication of A Theory of Semiotics in 1975, Eco was elevated to the rank of Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna. Concurrently, Eco resigned from his role as senior non-fiction editor at Bompiani.

The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum (1975–1988)

Between 1977 and 1978, Eco held visiting professorships at Yale University and subsequently at Columbia University. He revisited Yale from 1980 to 1981 and Columbia in 1984. During these periods, he finalized The Role of the Reader (1979) and Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984).

Leveraging his expertise as a medievalist, Eco's inaugural novel, The Name of the Rose (1980), is a historical mystery situated within a 14th-century monastery. The narrative follows Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, assisted by his Benedictine novice companion, Adso, as they investigate a series of homicides occurring at a monastery slated to host a significant theological debate. This work incorporates numerous explicit and implicit metatextual allusions to various sources, necessitating the reader's interpretive engagement to decipher them. Although the title remains unexplicated within the main text, the novel concludes with a Latin verse: "Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus" (transl. "the ancient rose remains in name; we hold [only] the bare names."). The rose metaphorically represents the ephemeral nature of all notable entities. A homage to Jorge Luis Borges, a significant influence on Eco, is evident in the character Jorge of Burgos; Borges, akin to the blind monk Jorge, led a celibate existence devoted to literature and experienced blindness in his later years. Furthermore, the intricate library depicted in The Name of the Rose serves as an allusion to Borges's short story, "The Library of Babel." William of Baskerville is characterized as a logical English friar and investigator. His nomenclature simultaneously references William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes (specifically through The Hound of the Baskervilles); numerous descriptive passages concerning him bear a striking resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's portrayals of Holmes.

Subsequently, The Name of the Rose was adapted into a motion picture, starring Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater, and Ron Perlman, which adhered to the novel's plot but diverged from its philosophical and historical underpinnings. A made-for-television mini-series was also produced.

Eco's 1988 novel, Foucault's Pendulum, features three underemployed editors employed by a small publishing firm who devise a conspiracy theory for their own amusement. This elaborate conspiracy, dubbed "The Plan," posits a vast and complex scheme for global domination orchestrated by a clandestine order purportedly descended from the Knights Templar. As their speculative exercise progresses, the trio gradually develops an intense preoccupation with the intricacies of this fabricated plan. The situation escalates perilously when external parties become aware of "The Plan" and erroneously conclude that the editors have genuinely uncovered the method for recovering the Templars' lost treasure.

Anthropology of the West and The Island of the Day Before (1988–2000)

In 1988, Eco established the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Republic of San Marino. Subsequently, in 1992, he founded the Institute of Communication Disciplines at the University of Bologna, where he later also established the Higher School for the Study of the Humanities.

At the University of Bologna in 1988, Eco initiated a distinctive program titled Anthropology of the West, which examined the subject from non-Western viewpoints, specifically those of African and Chinese scholars, based on their self-defined criteria. This transcultural international network was developed by Eco, drawing inspiration from Alain le Pichon's concept originating in West Africa. The Bologna initiative led to the inaugural conference, "Frontiers of Knowledge," held in Guangzhou, China, in 1991. This initial event was promptly succeeded by an Itinerant Euro-Chinese seminar, "Misunderstandings in the Quest for the Universal," which traversed the historic silk trade route from Guangzhou to Beijing. The seminar ultimately resulted in the publication of a book, The Unicorn and the Dragon, which explored the epistemological processes in both China and Europe. Contributors to this volume included Chinese scholars such as Tang Yijie, Wang Bin, and Yue Daiyun, alongside European academics including Furio Colombo, Antoine Danchin, Jacques Le Goff, Paolo Fabbri, and Alain Rey.

In 1990, Eco released his work, The Limits of Interpretation.

Between 1992 and 1993, Eco served as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. These Norton Lectures were subsequently compiled and published by Harvard University Press in 1994 under the title Six Walks in the Fictional Woods.

In the same year, Eco released his third novel, The Island of the Day Before (1994). This 17th-century narrative centers on a protagonist marooned on a ship, observing an island he presumes lies beyond the International Date Line. Incapacitated by his inability to swim, the central character dedicates the majority of the novel to reflecting upon his past life and the circumstances that led to his predicament.

In 1997, Eco revisited semiotics with the publication of Kant and the Platypus. He reportedly cautioned readers about its complexity, stating, "This is a hard-core book. It's not a page-turner. You have to stay on every page for two weeks with your pencil. In other words, don't buy it if you are not Einstein."

Between 2001 and 2002, Eco held the position of Weidenfeld Visiting Professor in Comparative European Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.

In 2000, a seminar in Timbuktu initiated a series of discussions on reciprocal knowledge between East and West, which continued with a subsequent gathering in Bologna. This initiative expanded into a series of conferences held in Brussels, Paris, and Goa, culminating in Beijing in 2007. The Beijing conference addressed themes such as "Order and Disorder," "New Concepts of War and Peace," "Human Rights," and "Social Justice and Harmony." Eco delivered the opening lecture. Presenters included anthropologists Balveer Arora, Varun Sahni, and Rukmini Bhaya Nair from India; Moussa Sow from Africa; Roland Marti and Maurice Olender from Europe; Cha Insuk from Korea; and Huang Ping and Zhao Tingyang from China. The program also featured legal and scientific scholars, including Antoine Danchin, Ahmed Djebbar, and Dieter Grimm. Eco's engagement in East-West dialogue, aimed at fostering international communication and understanding, aligns with his interest in Esperanto as an international auxiliary language.

Subsequent Literary Works (2000–2016)

The novel Baudolino, published in 2000, features a well-traveled, polyglot Piedmontese scholar who rescues the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates during the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople. The protagonist, who professes to be an adept liar, recounts his life story: from his imaginative peasant childhood and his adoption by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, to his quest to find the mythical Prester John. Throughout his narrative, Baudolino emphasizes his skill in deception and storytelling, thereby instilling uncertainty in both the historian and the reader regarding the veracity of his account.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2005) centers on Giambattista Bodoni, an elderly antique bookseller who awakens from a coma with fragmented memories, compelling him to reconstruct his past. Bodoni faces a profound dilemma: he must choose between forsaking his past to embrace his future or recovering his past at the expense of his future.

Eco's sixth novel, The Prague Cemetery, released in 2010, chronicles the activities of a secret agent who "weaves plots, conspiracies, intrigues and attacks, and helps determine the historical and political fate of the European Continent." The book serves as a narrative exploration of the emergence of modern antisemitism, tracing its roots through events such as the Dreyfus affair, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and other significant 19th-century occurrences that fostered animosity towards Jewish communities.

In 2012, Eco co-authored a book with Jean-Claude Carrière, presenting their conversations on the future of information dissemination. Within this work, Eco notably critiqued social networks, asserting that "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots."

From the Tree to the Labyrinth: Historical Studies on the Sign and Interpretation (2014).

Published in 2015, Numero Zero is set in 1992 and narrated by Colonna, a struggling journalist employed by a Milanese newspaper. The novel functions as a satire, targeting Italy's pervasive culture of kickbacks and bribery, alongside broader themes including the enduring legacy of fascism.

Influences and Thematic Elements

The Neoavanguardia, also known as Gruppo '63, comprised a collective of avant-garde artists, painters, musicians, and writers whom Eco befriended at RAI. This group emerged as a significant and influential factor in his literary development.

In 1971, Eco co-founded Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici, a semiotic journal known as VS among Italian academics. This publication serves as a platform for scholars engaged in research concerning signs and signification. The establishment and ongoing activities of VS have significantly advanced semiotics as a distinct academic discipline, both within Italy and across Europe. Numerous prominent European semioticians, including Eco, A. J. Greimas, Jean-Marie Floch, and Jacques Fontanille, alongside philosophers and linguists such as John Searle and George Lakoff, have contributed original articles to VS. Eco's collaborations with Serbian and Russian academics and authors encompassed reflections on Milorad Pavić and an encounter with Alexander Genis.

Commencing in the early 1990s, Eco collaborated with artists and philosophers, including Enrico Baj, Jean Baudrillard, and Donald Kuspit, to produce a series of satirical texts exploring the conceptual science of 'pataphysics.

Eco's fictional works have garnered a substantial global readership and have been extensively translated. His novels are characterized by intricate, frequently multilingual, allusions to literary and historical contexts. Eco's oeuvre exemplifies the concept of intertextuality, highlighting the inherent interconnectedness of all literary creations. He identified James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges as the two contemporary authors who most profoundly influenced his writing.

Umberto Eco maintained that hypertexts were not a suitable medium for novels. He argued that multimedia additions did not enhance the cultural value of a work but merely integrated its existing content. During a 1995 presentation at the Milan Triennale University, he stated: "I have seen several multimedia works, and I personally collaborated in the drafting of a publication of this type. They gave me a computer on which to run the finished work, but now remotely of just one year this machine is already outdated, rendered obsolete and unusable with the most recent multimedia works."

Eco also distinguished himself as a translator, rendering Raymond Queneau's 1947 work Exercices de style into Italian. His translation, titled Esercizi di stile, was published in 1983. Additionally, he translated Gérard de Nerval's novella, Sylvie.

Critical reception and legacy

As an academic specializing in philosophy, semiotics, and culture, Eco's theoretical contributions elicited divergent critical responses, with some deeming them brilliant and others dismissing them as self-indulgent projects overly focused on trivial details. Conversely, his fiction captivated critics with its simultaneous complexity and widespread appeal. In his 1980 review of The Role of the Reader, philosopher Roger Scruton critiqued Eco's esoteric tendencies, asserting that "[Eco seeks] the rhetoric of technicality, the means of generating so much smoke for so long that the reader will begin to blame his own lack of perception, rather than the author's lack of illumination, for the fact that he has ceased to see." Similarly, in his 1986 review of Faith in Fakes and Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, art historian Nicholas Penny accused Eco of intellectual pandering, writing, "I suspect that Eco may have first been seduced from intellectual caution, if not modesty, by the righteous cause of 'relevance' (a word much in favour when the earlier of these essays appeared) – a cause which Medievalists may be driven to embrace with particularly desperate abandon."

In contrast, Eco received commendation for his intellectual lightness and extensive knowledge, which enabled him to render complex academic subjects both accessible and engaging. In a 1980 review of The Name of the Rose, literary critic Frank Kermode characterized Theory of Semiotics as "a vigorous but difficult treatise," while describing Eco's novel as "a wonderfully interesting book – a very odd thing to be born of a passion for the Middle Ages and for semiotics, and a very modern pleasure." Gilles Deleuze favorably cited Eco's 1962 work The Open Work in his influential 1968 text Difference and Repetition, a book from which poststructuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida reportedly also drew inspiration. In an obituary, philosopher and literary critic Carlin Romano described Eco as having "[become], over time, the critical conscience at the center of Italian humanistic culture, uniting smaller worlds like no one before him."

In 2017, Open Court released a retrospective of Eco's oeuvre, constituting the 35th volume in the esteemed Library of Living Philosophers. This publication, edited by Sara G. Beardsworth and Randall E. Auxier, included contributions from 23 contemporary scholars.

Accolades

Subsequent to the 1980 publication of The Name of the Rose, Eco received the Strega Prize in 1981, recognized as Italy's preeminent literary accolade. Concurrently, he was granted the Anghiari Prize. The Mendicis Prize followed in 1982, and the McLuhan Teleglobe Prize in 1985. In 2005, Eco, alongside Roger Angell, was bestowed with the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. His induction into the Accademia dei Lincei occurred in 2010.

Eco was conferred with numerous honorary doctorate degrees, commencing with KU Leuven, followed by the University of Odense in 1986, Loyola University Chicago in 1987, the University of Liège in 1989, the University of Glasgow in 1990, the University of Kent in 1992, Indiana University Bloomington in 1992, the University of Tartu in 1996, Rutgers University in 2002, and the University of Belgrade in 2009. Furthermore, he held the distinction of honorary fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, and was an associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

In 2014, he was honored with the Gutenberg Prize, presented jointly by the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz.

Religious Perspectives

During his collegiate years, Eco disavowed his belief in God and subsequently departed from the Catholic Church. He was instrumental in co-founding the Italian skeptical organization, the Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sulle Pseudoscienze (Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudoscienses).

Personal Life and Demise

In September 1962, he married Renate Ramge, a German graphic designer and art educator. Together, they had a son and a daughter.

Eco maintained residences in both Milan and a vacation home near Urbino. His Milanese apartment housed a library of 30,000 volumes, while his Urbino residence contained a collection of 20,000 volumes.

Eco passed away at his Milan residence on the night of February 19, 2016, succumbing to pancreatic cancer, an illness he had endured for two years. From 2008 until his death at 84 years old, he held the title of professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, having commenced his teaching career there in 1971.

Cultural References

• Eco made a cameo appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 film La Notte ('The Night'), portraying a guest at a celebratory gathering for the publication of protagonist Giovanni Pontano's (Marcello Mastroianni) new book by Bompiani, a publishing house where Eco served as an editor.
• Eco's extensive private library collection became the focus of a 2023 documentary film directed by Davide Ferrario, titled Umberto Eco: A Library of the World.

Selected Bibliography

Novels

• Il nome della rosa (1980; English translation: The Name of the Rose, 1983)
• Il pendolo di Foucault (1988; English translation: Foucault's Pendulum, 1989)
• L'isola del giorno prima (1994; English translation: The Island of the Day Before, 1995)
• Baudolino (2000; English translation: Baudolino, 2001)
• La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana (2004; English translation: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, 2005)
• Il cimitero di Praga (2010; English translation: The Prague Cemetery, 2011)
• Numero zero (2015; English translation: Numero Zero, 2015)

Non-Fiction Works

• Il problema estetico in San Tommaso (1956 – English translation: The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, 1988, revised edition)
• "Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale," in Momenti e problemi di storia dell'estetica (1959 – English translation: Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, 1985)
• Opera aperta (1962, revised 1976 – English translation: The Open Work, 1989)
• Diario Minimo (1963 – English translation: Misreadings, 1993)
• Apocalittici e integrati (1964 – Partial English translation: Apocalypse Postponed, 1994)
• Le poetiche di Joyce (1965 – English translations: The Middle Ages of James Joyce, The Aesthetics of Chaosmos, 1989)
• La Struttura Assente (1968 – English translation: The Absent Structure)
• Il costume di casa (1973 – English translation: Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality, 1986)
• Il segno (1973 – French enlarged adaptation by Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, Labor, 1988)
• A Treatise on General Semiotics (1975), translated into English as A Theory of Semiotics in 1976.
• The Superman of the Masses (1976).
• How to Write a Thesis (1977), with an English translation published as How to Write a Thesis in 2015.
• From the Periphery of the Empire (1977).
• Lector in fabula (1979).
• A Semiotic Landscape. Panorama sémiotique. This volume comprises the Proceedings of the 1st Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (Approaches to Semiotics, 29, Mouton 1979), co-authored with Seymour Chatman and Jean-Marie Klinkenberg.
• The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (1979), a compilation featuring essays from Opera aperta (Open Work), Apocalittici e integrati (Apocalyptics and Integrated), Forme del contenuto (Forms of Content, 1971), Il Superuomo di massa (The Superman of the Masses), and Lector in Fabula.
• Seven Years of Desire (1983).
• Postscript to The Name of the Rose (1983), with its English translation, Postscript to The Name of the Rose, published in 1984.
• Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984), also released in English as Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language in the same year.
• De Bibliotheca (1986), published in both Italian and French.
• The Strange Case of Hanau 1609 (1989), with a French translation titled L'Enigme de l'Hanau 1609 appearing in 1990.
• The Limits of Interpretation (1990), also published in English as The Limits of Interpretation in the same year.
• Interpretation and Overinterpretation (1992), co-authored with R. Rorty, J. Culler, and C. Brooke-Rose, and edited by S. Collini.
• The Second Minimum Diary (1992).
• The Search for the Perfect Language in European Culture (1993), subsequently translated into English as The Search for the Perfect Language (The Making of Europe) in 1995.
• Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994).
• Ur Fascism (1995), also published in English as Eternal Fascism in the same year, which includes the essay "14 General Properties of Fascism."
• Incontro – Encounter – Rencontre (1996), presented in Italian, English, and French.
• What Do Those Who Do Not Believe Believe? (1996), co-authored with Carlo Maria Martini, and later translated into English as Belief or Nonbelief? A Dialogue in 2000.
• Five Moral Writings (1997), with an English translation titled Five Moral Pieces published in 2001.
• Kant and the Platypus (1997), translated into English as Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition in 1999.
• Serendipities: Language and Lunacy (1998).
• How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays (1998), which constitutes a partial English translation of Il secondo diario minimo (The Second Minimum Diary), originally published in 1994.
• Minerva's Matchbook (1999).
• Experiences in Translation (University of Toronto Press, 2000).
• On Mirrors and Other Essays (2002).
• On Literature (2003), translated into English by Martin McLaughlin as On Literature in 2004.
• Mouse or Rat?: Translation as Negotiation (2003).
• History of Beauty (2004), co-edited with Girolamo de Michele, and simultaneously released in English as History of Beauty or On Beauty.
• Crabwalk. Hot Wars and Media Populism (Bompiani, 2006), translated into English by Alastair McEwen as Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism in 2007.
• History of Ugliness (Bompiani, 2007), also published in English as On Ugliness in the same year.
• From the Tree to the Labyrinth: Historical Studies on the Sign and Interpretation (Bompiani, 2007), with an English translation by Anthony Oldcorn, titled From the Tree to the Labyrinth: Historical Studies on the Sign and Interpretation, published in 2014.
• The Vertigo of the List (Rizzoli, 2009), subsequently translated into English as The Infinity of Lists.
• Inventing the Enemy and Other Occasional Writings (Bompiani, 2011), translated into English by Richard Dixon as Inventing the Enemy in 2012.
• History of Legendary Lands and Places (Bompiani, 2013), with an English translation by Alastair McEwen titled The Book of Legendary Lands, published in the same year.
• Pape Satàn Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society (Nave di Teseo, 2016), translated into English by Richard Dixon as Chronicles of a Liquid Society in 2017.
• On the Shoulders of Giants (Collana I fari, Milano, La nave di Teseo, 2017, ISBN 978-88-934-4271-8), with an English translation by Alastair McEwen, titled On the Shoulders of Giants, published by Harvard University Press in 2019.

Anthologies

• Eco, Umberto; Sebeok, Thomas A., eds. (1984), The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce, Bloomington, IN: History Workshop, Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-35235-4Children's Literature

  (Illustrations by Eugenio Carmi)

  • La bomba e il generale (1966, revised 1988 – English translation: The Bomb and the General, Harcourt Children's Books (J); 1st edition, February 1989, ISBN 978-0-15-209700-4)
  • I tre cosmonauti (1966 – English translation: The Three Cosmonauts, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; First edition, 3 April 1989, ISBN 978-0-436-14094-5)
  • Gli gnomi di Gnu (1992 – English translation: The Gnomes of Gnu, Bompiani; 1st edition, 1992, ISBN 978-88-452-1885-9)

  Notes

  References

  • Media related to Umberto Eco at Wikimedia Commons
  • Official website
  • An annotation guide to Eco's works.
  • Zanganeh, Lila Azam (Summer 2008). "Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197." Paris Review, Summer 2008 (185).
  • "We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die" interview by Susanne Beyer and Lothar Gorris.
  • Appearances on C-SPAN.
  • "Ur-Fascism,"(subscription required), published in the New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995, pp. 12–15. This text originated from a lecture delivered at Columbia University, New York, on April 24, 1995, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Europe's liberation from National Socialism.
  • Ur-Fascism, (subscription required) New York Review of Books, June, 22nd, 1995, pp. 12–15. Lecture, hold at Columbia University, New York, on April, 24th, 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from national socialism
  • The Limits of Interpretation: Umberto Eco's Perspective on Poland's 1968 Student Protests.