Umberto Eco dies aged 84 “A master who brought Italian culture to the whole world”

“[He was] an extraordinary example of a European intellectual, combining unique intelligence of the past with a limitless capacity to anticipate the future,” said Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi. “It’s an enormous loss for culture, which will miss his writing and voice, his sharp and lively thought, and his humanity,” Renzi told the Ansa news agency.

Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said Eco remained youthful until his last day. “A master who brought Italian culture to the whole world,” Franceschini wrote on Twitter.

Leading daily Corriere della Sera described Eco as “The writer who changed Italian culture”, while newspaper La Stampa described a country in mourning for the author’s death.

Through Eco’s academic writings and his bestselling books, he became a respected intellectual voice both in Italy and abroad.

Internationally, he remains most well-known for his bestseller The Name of the Rose, a medieval detective novel set in an Italian abbey, which follows Brother William of Baskerville as he investigates a series of suspicious deaths. The novel captured imaginations globally and was turned into a film starring Sean Connery as Brother William.

www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: 2012newstart

Appropriate that he be remembered on Above Top Secret. His novel Foucault’s Pendulum was a magnificent send-up of conspiracy theories — and a dire warning to those who dabble in them.

a reply to: Astyanax

I will remember Umberto Eco as one of the major writers who wanted to reform the Catholic Church from inside. There were others, like cardinal Martini of Milan, who like Eco didn't exit the Catholic church rather gave it a new cultural meaning. Hope there are more intellectuals like Umberto Eco in our days who will comprehend the dire need for a new beginning and a new reread of the old books. Especially in the traditionally Catholic countries like Italy, but of course everywhere.

May he be rewarded by God for his great contribution to both Church and Culture, and for all people who were brought closer to the "spirit and in truth" by reading his books that surpass time and borders.

John 4:23 NIV "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

This is very sad to me. He was an excellent writer.

One of my favorite authors... sad. Luckily, we'll have a piece of these individuals left with literature.

The universes that are lost with every death is staggering to think of, and I'll go on supposing it isn't lost, but just returns to the place it emerged from for a blip.

A loss I needed a degree to just get through the first chapter of Foucaults Pendulum.