Those who read, those who
tell us what they read,
Those who noisily turn
the pages of their books,
Those who have power over
red and black ink,
and over pictures,
Those are the ones who lead us, guide us,
show us the way.
Aztec Codex from 1524,
Vatican Archives
While writing this book, I have contracted many debts. In the alphabetical order dear to libraries, my thanks:
To my friends and colleagues Enis Batur, Anders Björnsson, Antoine Boulad, Roberto Calasso, Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda, Viviane Flament, Dieter Hein, Chris Herschdorfer, Patricia Jaunet, Marie Korey, Richard Landon, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Hubert Nyssen, Felicidad Orquín, Lucie Pabel and Gottwalt Pankow, Dominique Papon, Fabrice Pataut, Arturo Ramoneda, Sylviane Sambord, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Maud Stéphan-Hachem, Jean-Luc Terradillos.
To the staff of the London Library and of the Médiathèque de Poitiers, and to Anne-Catherine Sutermeister and Silvia Kimmeier of the Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Lausanne.
To my agents, Michèle Lapautre in Paris, Guillermo Schavelzon in Barcelona, Ruth Weibel in Zurich, Bruce Westwood and Nicole Winstanley and the staff at Westwood Creative Artists in Toronto.
To Gena Gorrell, whose critical, unrelenting, meticulous reading cleared the book of a vast number of errors and fatuities. To Deirdre Molina, for her painstaking care in following the book from manuscript to print. To C.S. Richardson, for another splendid book design. To Liba Berry, for the excellent proofread. To Michelle MacAleese, for her thorough photo research. To Barney Gilmore, for the comprehensive index.
To my editors, Rosellina Arquinto, Hans-Jürgen Balmes, Valeria Ciompi, Carmen Criado, Haye Koningsveld, Luiz Schwarcz, Marie-Catherine Vacher and, first and foremost, overriding the laws of the alphabet, Louise Dennys.
Finally, I’m deeply grateful to the S. Fischer Stiftung in Berlin and to the Simon Guggenheim Foundation in New York for their financial assistance over the past years, without which this book would no doubt be still languishing in the future.