Umberto Eco gained worldwide fame as the author of six novels that have become timeless classics. However, he himself considers his scientific work much more important. An outstanding semiologist, medievalist, culturologist and mass mediaologist, honorary professor of many universities, Eco is a figure no less large-scale in the academic environment than in fiction. One of the main areas of his scientific activity is medieval studies, and in this book Eco introduces non-specialists to the works of the greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages – such as Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, who dealt with problems of aesthetics. What is beauty? What is it made up of - in nature, in art, in God, in man? Does true, objective beauty exist, independent of the beholder? Finding answers to these questions in the Middle Ages allows us to better understand our own sense of beauty and gain a new appreciation for the various manifestations of beauty in the world around us.