Abstract

Umberto Eco is at his best when he teaches, entertains, and shows off his interdisciplinary and encyclopedic knowledge. It is all part of his art of docere et delectare. His novels and his essays are all about knowing more about our history, our society, our culture, and our world, including those of imaginary lands. The numerous colorful illustrations that accompany The Book of Legendary Lands make this recent publication the fourth encyclopedic illustrated text – after The History of Beauty, The History of Ugliness, and The Vertigo of Lists – and another testimonial of Eco’s love for interdisciplinary research. Eco has also had a long history of loving to examine fakes and forgeries – a familiar topic recurring often in both his scientific and creative writings. It is his love for analyzing “The Force of Falsity” in our history (the false not necessarily in the form of lies but also in the form of error) that has motivated Eco to publish his research on how curiosity, imagination, errors, and serendipity are at the foundation of many of the discoveries throughout the centuries. Imaginary and fake maps, monsters, islands, civilizations, documents, languages, secrets, and perfect worlds all come under scrutiny as Eco with his familiar wit and irony narrates and documents the history of legendary lands from Plato to our times.

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