Italian writer, philosopher and linguist Umberto Eco has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Łódź, Poland.

A citation recalls that Eco has been recognised as one of the world’s fifty most important contemporary thinkers and describes him as one of the leading humanists and literary scholars of our time. Several of Eco’s novels, notably ‘The Name of the Rose’ and ‘ Foucault’s Pendulum’, have been bestsellers in Poland.

In his address at the university, Umberto Eco spoke of his long-standing contacts with Polish culture. He said that he loves the music of Chopin, read the novel Quo Vadis by the Polish Nobel Prize-winning writer Henryk Sienkiewicz at the age of twelve.

The ceremony of Umberto Eco’s honorary doctorate was part of celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the university.

bbabo.Net