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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. At the time of his death, he was an Emeritus professor at the University of Bologna, where he taught for much of his life. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Umberto Eco has received more than 3,966,444 page views. His biography is available in 110 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 102 in 2019). Umberto Eco is the 59th most popular writer (up from 62nd in 2019), the 61st most popular biography from Italy (down from 54th in 2019) and the 7th 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

  • 4.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 79.11

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 110

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.75

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.60

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

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Among WRITERS

Among writers, Umberto Eco ranks 59 out of 5,755Before him are Hesiod, Gabriel García Márquez, Daniel Defoe, Li Bai, Bertolt Brecht, and Stendhal. After him are Gustave Flaubert, Thomas Mann, Rabindranath Tagore, Jack London, Henrik Ibsen, and Stefan Zweig.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1932, Umberto Eco ranks 1After him are Jacques Chirac, Luc Montagnier, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Omar Sharif, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Truffaut, Miloš Forman, Johnny Cash, John Williams, and Cesare Maldini. Among people deceased in 2016, Umberto Eco ranks 3Before him are Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro. After him are Johan Cruyff, Bud Spencer, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Alan Rickman, Debbie Reynolds, Shimon Peres, Bhumibol Adulyadej, and Imre Kertész.

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 61 out of 4,668Before him are Sophia Loren (1934), Empedocles (-490), Federico Fellini (1920), Fibonacci (1170), Lucretius (-94), and Pope Clement VII (1478). After him are Guglielmo Marconi (1874), Vespasian (9), Antonio Stradivari (1644), Benedict of Nursia (480), Luciano Pavarotti (1935), and Vitruvius (-75).

Among WRITERS In Italy

Among writers born in Italy, Umberto Eco ranks 7Before him are Dante Alighieri (1265), Virgil (-70), Ovid (-43), Petrarch (1304), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313), and Horace (-65). After him are Giacomo Casanova (1725), Giorgio Vasari (1511), Cato the Elder (-243), Plautus (-254), Carlo Collodi (1826), and Catullus (-84).