Umberto Eco \/1932–2016\/

On February 20, when it was already deep night in Moscow, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica announced on its Twitter that Umberto Eco had died.

Philosopher, medievalist, critic, writer - everyone is free to arrange in their sequence - Umberto Eco, who turned 84 in January, was more than any of the named professions. He was an institution in itself, a code of ethical laws, a collection of life norms and rules, an encyclopedist of the past and a harbinger of the future. "The Name of the Rose", "Foucault's Pendulum", "The Island of the Eve", the theory of eternal (ur) fascism, the warning - nothing has gone away, everything is able to return and start the same harvest wheel again. He wrote and spoke and preached - Umberto Eco, a man-institute who tried to reason with mankind. And now he is no more. And madness is the hottest commodity. But Eco is already on the Island.

Photo: art1 visual daily