Author Umberto Eco, famous for the novels "Foucault's Pendulum" and "The Name of the Rose," died Friday, said Lori Glazer, spokeswoman for his U.S. publisher.

Eco was 84.

"Umberto Eco was one of the great novelists and scholars of our time. Yet even more than for his timeless works, we will remember him for his exuberance, his vitality, his intense loyalties, and his wonderful company," said Bruce Nichols of publishing house Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.