The Infinity of Lists

The Infinity of Lists is a book by Umberto Eco on the topic of lists (2009) ISBN 978-0847832965. The title of the original Italian edition was La Vertigine della Lista (The Vertigo of Lists) (2009) ISBN 978-8845263453. It was produced in collaboration with the Louvre.¹

The examples of lists in the work range from Hesiod's list of the progeny of gods to Rabelais's list of bottom wipes.¹

Financial Times writer Simon Schama described the book (in list form) as a delight: "profuse, plethoric, prolix, plentiful, playful, populous, picaresque, picturesque; copious, cornucopian, congested, clotted; incontinent, infested, infectious; omnivorous, orgiastic, odd; abundant, redundant; multifarious, multitudinous; glutted, gargantuan, inclusive, elusive, and...exhaustive." However, Schama also described it as exasperating: "If its pleasures easily overwhelm its irritants, that's because the book has the charm of extreme greed."¹