Les Objets désuets dans l’imagination littéraire Ruines, reliques, raretés, rebuts, lieux inhabités et trésors cachés

Literature evokes, describes or celebrates objects, giving preference to the useless, old or unusual rather than the useful, new or normal. The book of Francesco Orlando, who died in 2010, analyses this paradox by which the non-functional takes precedence over the functional.
This edition includes an unpublished preface by Carlo Ginzburg.