Italian author and intellectual Umberto Eco died on Friday at his home in Milan, according to Italian media reports.

His Italian publisher, Bompiani, confirmed his death, according to the Italian news agency ANSA

He was best known for his 1980 historical mystery novel The Name of the Rose, which has been translated into more than 40 languages.

As a semiotician, Eco sought to interpret cultures through their signs and symbols, publishing more than 20 non-fiction books on these subjects.

He directed the school of human sciences at Bologna University, Europe’s oldest university and as a polyglot, he was also the honorary president of the International Centre of Semiotics and Cognitive Studies at the University of San Marino and a member of Unesco’s International Forum.

“Books are not meant to be believed but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book we mustn’t ask ourselves what it says but what it means,” Eco had said once.

He was born on 5 January 1932 at Alessandria in the northern Italian region of Piedmont.

Apart from The Name of the Rose, which was a best seller, he wrote also other famous novels such as Foucault’s Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before and The Prague Cemetery, while he had also wrote many academic texts, children’s books and essays.