Eco is known to Russian readers primarily as a writer, the author of original works on medieval aesthetics, and a widely erudite medieval historian. This book reveals a new facet of Eco's thought: he emerges as a profound expert in the history of semiotics, whose problems he examines within the broad context of the development of European philosophical thought from the Middle Ages to the present day. This book is a series of essays that illuminate, in Eco's view, the most important issues in the history and theory of the sign and semiosis. This book inaugurates the "Semiotics" series, which will follow Eco's work with the theoretical works of Yury Lotman.
This publication will be very useful for philosophers, cultural scholars, religious scholars, and anyone interested in the history of European philosophical thought.