Facts about The Name of the Rose
- 09
William of Baskerville's investigative methods in Eco's novel were inspired by the deductive reasoning techniques of the historical figure William of Ockham, a 14th-century Franciscan philosopher.
- 08
Medieval manuscripts and architectural details of actual European monasteries informed Eco's construction of the fictional abbey where William of Baskerville investigates seven murders across four days.
- 07
Eco constructed the novel's elaborate plot around semiotics and medieval philosophy, embedding approximately 160 footnotes and historical references throughout the 645-page text.
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Adso of Melk, the 80-year-old narrator recounting events from 1327, frames the entire novel as a retrospective manuscript written decades after the monastery's tragic fire.
- 05
Over 30 languages have published translations of Eco's 1980 novel, making it one of the most widely translated Italian literary works of the twentieth century.
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The novel's central mystery involves a poisoned book whose pages are coated with toxic substance, making it literally deadly to read without protection.
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In 1983, Umberto Eco published a detailed postscript explaining his novel's narrative structure, philosophical themes, and the historical sources he consulted for The Name of the Rose.
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Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film adaptation starred Sean Connery as the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
- 01
Umberto Eco's 1980 novel sprawls across 645 pages in its original Italian edition, featuring a Byzantine murder mystery set in a 14th-century Benedictine monastery.