The Italian prime minister has led tributes to author Umberto Eco who has died at the age of 84. <br /><br /> Matteo Renzi told local media that Eco’s death is a huge loss for culture .. which he said will miss his writing and his voice, sharp and vivid thought and his humanity.”<br /><br /> An accomplished scholar, Eco was nearly 50 when his first novel,“The Name of the Rose’, became a best-seller. <br /><br /> Published in 1980, the medieval murder mystery set in an Italian monastery has been translated into more than 40 languages. It was made into a film starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater.<br /><br /> British daily The Guardian hailed Eco as “one of the world’s most revered literary names”.<br /><br /> In an interview with the paper last year, he said that his approach to writing was to seek to “change” the reader.<br /><br /> Media reports say Umberto Eco died at his home and had been suffering from cancer for some time.<br /><br /> He leaves a wife, a German art teacher who he married in 1962 and with whom he had a son and a daughter.<br /><br /> Dev
