Bakı, 20 fevral, AZƏRTAC

Umberto Eco, best known for the novel The Name of the Rose, was praised as "an outstanding example of a European intellectual" by the Italian prime minister following the writer's death on February 19, 2016, aged 84, according to The Telegraph.

Eco, who died of cancer was praised by Italy's Matteo Renzi, who said, "Eco was an outstanding example of a European intellectual, a single intelligence with an untiring ability to anticipate the future. It’s a huge loss for culture, which will miss his writing and his voice, sharp and vivid thought and his humanity."

Eco was born on January 5, 1932, at Alessandria, in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. His father, Giulio Eco, was an accountant, before being drafted to fight in three wars.

Eco, who continued his academic work late in life, continued his literary success with Foucault's Pendulum (1988) about the lost treasure of a sect called the Knights Templar, The Island of the Day Before (1994), Baudolino (2000).

One celebrated recent novel was The Prague Cemetery (2010), which was about the rise of modern anti-Semitism. His last novel, Numero Zero came out last year and recalled a political scandal from the 1990s that helped lead to Silvio Berlusconi's rise. Eco was once asked about being "too erudite" and replied: "It's only publishers and some journalists who believe that people want simple things. People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged."

In one of his final interviews, published by The Telegraph in November 2015, Eco said that as a child he was interviewed by writers as diverse as P G Wodehouse and Dante.