Writer and philosopher Umberto Eco has died at the age of 84, his family has announced.

The Italian author passed away on February 19 at his home. No further details were given.

Umberto Eco’s best known novel, The Name of the Rose, was made into a film in 1989 starring Sean Connery.

The writer, who also wrote the novel Foucault’s Pendulum, continued to publish new works, with Numero Zero released in 2015.

Umberto Eco also wrote children’s books and literary criticism.

He once wrote that “books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told”.

Umberto Eco founded the communications department at the University of San Marino in the 1980s.

He was later professor emeritus and chairman of the Higher School of Humanities of the University of Bologna.

Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, northern Italy, on January 5, 1932.

At the time of his death, Umberto Eco was a professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, a position that he had held since 2008.