Umberto Eco in Coimbra

memory of an investigation

Abstract

In this article we revisit and deepen the investigation about Umberto Eco’s presence in Coimbra that resulted in a text published in the Diário de Coimbra, to which was awarded the Adriano Lucas Journalism Award 2019. Over the original newspaper article, entitled “In Search of Umberto Eco”, the current text reconstructs the investigation carried out at the time and reorganizes in a more systematic way the fundamental data collected during that investigation. We present here: (1) the date on which Umberto Eco was in Coimbra; (2) the spaces where he went; (3) which kind of lecture was his; (4) and who would have been the Coimbra personality who led him through the Johannine Library.