Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, Italy in 1932.
A medievalist, novelist, and semniotician, his works of nonfiction include The Open Work, A Theory of Semiotics, The Role of the Reader, Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, The Limits of Interpretation, and Kant and the Platypus. His fiction includes Misreadings, The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, and The Island of the Day Before. His most recent novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, was published in 2005.
Eco has been awarded over 30 honorary doctorates from academic institutions worldwide. He is currently professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and President of the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane.