Umberto Eco is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. Recently his 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code," and was re-issued by Harcourt in March 2007.

Eco is President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, University of Bologna. He has also written academic texts, children’s books and many essays.