‘The Name of the Rose’ author Umberto Eco, 84

MILAN (AP) — Umberto Eco catapulted to global literary fame three decades ago with "The Name of the Rose," a novel in which professorial erudition underpinned a medieval thriller that sold some 30 million copies in more than 40 languages.

The Italian author and academic who became one of Italy's best-known cultural exports and keenest cultural critics, died at home in Milan on Friday evening after a battle with cancer, according to a family member who asked not to be identified.

His death was earlier confirmed by his American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Eco's contribution to Italian literature was lauded by political and cultural figures alike. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday at Milan's Sforza Castle, a grand citadel which is overlooked by Eco's book-filled house.

French President Francois Hollande remembered Eco as "an immense humanist," adding that "libraries have lost an insatiable reader, universities a dazzling professor and literature a passionate writer."

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Eco "united a unique intelligence of the past and an inexhaustible capacity to anticipate the future."

Italian author Elisabetta Sgarbi, who founded a publishing house last year with Eco and other Italian writers, called him "a great living encyclopedia" who taught young people "the capacity to love discoveries and marvels."

Author of books ranging from novels to scholarly tomes to essay collections, Eco was fascinated with the obscure and the mundane, and his books were both engaging narratives and philosophical and intellectual exercises.