Umberto Eco

September 12, 2015 - Camogli, Genova, Italy: Umberto Eco during the Festival della Comunicazione, the event dedicated to communication. Eco (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian philosopher, semiotician, essayist, literary critic, and novelist, most famous for his novel The Name of the Rose (1980), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. He is founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione (Department of Media Studies) at the University of the Republic of San Marino, President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici (Graduate School for the Study of the Humanities), University of Bologna, member of the Accademia dei Lincei (since November 2010), and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford. Eco died February 19, 2015 at age 84. (Leonardo Cendamo/Polaris)