WRITER

Umberto Eco

1932 - 2016

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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 wrote prolifically throughout his life, with his output including children's books, translations from French and English, in addition to a twice-monthly newspaper column "La Bustina di Minerva" (Minerva's Matchbook) in the magazine L'Espresso beginning in 1985, with his last column (a critical appraisal of the Romantic paintings of Francesco Hayez) appearing 27 January 2016. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Umberto Eco has received more than 4,238,335 page views. His biography is available in 113 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 110 in 2019). Umberto Eco is the 65th most popular writer (down from 59th in 2019), the 59th most popular biography from Italy (up from 61st in 2019) and the 8th most popular Italian Writer.

Umberto Eco is most famous for his novel "The Name of the Rose," which was a bestseller and sold over 20 million copies.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 79.03

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 113

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 13.22

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.81

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Umberto Eco ranks 65 out of 7,302. Before him are Stefan Zweig, Marcel Proust, Giacomo Casanova, Ayn Rand, Rabindranath Tagore, and Arthur Conan Doyle. After him are Heinrich Heine, Romain Rolland, Bertolt Brecht, Nikolai Gogol, Li Bai, and Charles Perrault.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1932, Umberto Eco ranks 1. After him are Jacques Chirac, Debbie Reynolds, Andrei Tarkovsky, Elizabeth Taylor, Omar Sharif, François Truffaut, Miloš Forman, Johnny Cash, John Williams, Abebe Bikila, and Peter O'Toole. Among people deceased in 2016, Umberto Eco ranks 5. Before him are Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro, Johan Cruyff, and Shimon Peres. After him are Bud Spencer, David Bowie, Debbie Reynolds, Alan Rickman, Bhumibol Adulyadej, Leonard Cohen, and Zaha Hadid.

Others Born in 1932

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Others Deceased in 2016

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In Italy

Among people born in Italy, Umberto Eco ranks 59 out of 5,161. Before him are Pope Clement VII (1478), Pope Gregory I (540), Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598), Lucretius (-94), Enrico Fermi (1901), and Saint Lucy (283). After him are Pope Pius XII (1876), Saint Valentine (226), Guglielmo Marconi (1874), Ötzi (-3345), Vespasian (9), and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194).

Others born in Italy

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Among WRITERS In Italy

Among writers born in Italy, Umberto Eco ranks 8. Before him are Virgil (-70), Petrarch (1304), Ovid (-43), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313), Horace (-65), and Giacomo Casanova (1725). After him are Giorgio Vasari (1511), Guillaume Apollinaire (1880), Plautus (-254), Cato the Elder (-243), Carlo Collodi (1826), and Catullus (-84).

Italian born Writers

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