419 pp. There is a little discoloration at the top of the spine, else very nice. 'Like any collector, the prince had surrounded himself with things for people to pay attention to, marvel at when they visited him. They defined him. He was, above all, the proprietor of these objects--which spoke for him which announced the way he saw the world. They did not say what the Cavaliere, like all great collectors, wished to say with objects: look at all the beauty and interest there is in the world. They said: the world is mad. Ordinary life is ridiculuous, if you take some distance from it. Anything can turn into anything else, anything can be dangerous, anything can collapse, give way. An ordinary object can be made from . . . anything. Any shape can be deformed. Any common purpose served by objects balked.'