Il nome della rosa. - 1980

Milan: Bompiani,, 1980. Gifted by Eco to the Milanese designer "in memory of many little bars" First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Sergio Asti, a pioneer of Italian industrial design, on the half-title: "A Sergio Asti in ricordo di tanti baretti, il tuo Umberto Eco. M(ilano). 1980" (To Sergio Asti, in memory of many little bars, your Umberto Eco. Milan. 1980). The two likely met for the first time in Milan in the 1960s or early 1970s, when Eco was in the city teaching architecture at the University of Milan and later semiology at Milan Polytechnic. Asti was by then an established designer: he had opened his own studio in 1956 and was one of the founding members the Association for Industrial Design (ADI). Eco's theory of semiotics, developed in 1962 with the essay Opera aperta, had a profound influence on the Italian cultural and intellectual scene. A study of the relationship between sign and meaning, semiotics was particularly relevant for designers and architects like Asti; understanding the meaning behind symbols and how they are interpreted by viewers is key to create graphics that convey ideas in the most effective way. It is possible that Eco and Asti bonded over a common interest for these topics, perhaps meeting in the "many little bars" of Milan that Eco fondly recalls in his inscription. In the following years, Eco wrote extensively about the applications of semiotics in architecture. Il nome della rosa was the author's debut novel, awarded Italy's most prestigious award for fiction, the Strega Prize, in 1981. As over 50 million copies have sold worldwide, and as it has been translated into more than 40 languages, it is one of the bestselling books ever published. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, map endpapers. With dust jacket. Slight lean to spine, couple of bumps at edges, contents lightly toned; jacket bright, creasing at spine ends, chip to head of front panel, couple of nicks to folds: a very good copy in like jacket.