The Infinity of Lists: An Illustrated Essay

Best-selling author and philosopher Umberto Eco is currently resident at the Louvre and his chosen theme of study is "the vertigo of lists." Reflecting on this enormous trove of human achievements in his lyrical intellectual style he has embarked on an investigation of the phenomenon of cataloging and collecting. This book featuring lavish reproductions of artworks from the Louvre and other world-famous collections is a philosophical and artistic sequel to Ecos recent acclaimed books History of Beauty and On Ugliness books in which he delved into the psychology philosophy history and art of human forms. Eco is a modern-day Diderot and here he examines the Western minds predilection for list-making and the encyclopedic. His central thesis is that in Western culture a passion for accumulation is recurring: lists of saints catalogues of plants collections of art. This impulse has recurred through the ages from music to literature to art. Eco refers