ROME — The last book from Italian literary giant Umberto Eco, who died last week, will be published on Friday (Feb 26), his publishers said.

“Pape Satan Aleppe. Chronicles of a Liquid Society” is a collection of essays that have appeared in Italian weekly L’Espresso since 2000, publishers La Nave di Teseo said Sunday.

The main title is the first three words of Canto 7 of “Inferno”, the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem “Divine Comedy”.

The meaning of the words has sparked numerous interpretations, but for Eco it is “sufficiently ‘liquid’ to characterise the confusion of our times”, according to a summary available on Amazon and written by the author.

The book was originally due for publication in May, but the date was brought forward after the writer’s death.

Eco, the literary and intellectual phenomenon who wrote mediaeval thriller “The Name of the Rose”, died at his Milan home on Friday, aged 84.

La Nave di Teseo, which announced the release date on its Facebook page, is a new publishing house that emerged after notable writers, including Eco, moved to protect their independence and editorial diversity after the birth of a publishing giant in Italy.

Last October, the family of former prime minister and billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, owners of Arnoldi Mondadori Editore, announced they had bought RCS Libri, a book publishing affiliate of RCS, which owns the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

RCS, whose main shareholder is automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, groups a number of publishing houses, such as Rizzoli and Bompiani, which releases works in Italy by Eco and France’s Michel Houellebecq.

The deal gave birth to a publishing giant which has a market share of around 40 per cent in Italy.

La Nave di Teseo is headed by Elisabetta Sgarbi, former editorial director of Bompiani. AFP