Italo Calvino wrote in 1975 a brief article (1975, 1995) in which his longtime reflection on
cities is condensed into an evolutionary sketch of how cities evolve. Of the two renowned�…

Italo Calvino wrote in 1975 a brief article (1975, 1995) in which his longtime reflection on
cities is condensed into an evolutionary sketch of how cities evolve. Of the two renowned�…

Cities are the most complex creations of human imagination and endeavor. Their physical
forms and social relations map the landscape of history and a geography of future�…

It is no longer necessary to maintain the distinction between introspective knowledge [...] and
objective knowledge. There is only one type of knowledge and it is always linked to an�…

Leaving Rome and proceeding for an hour toward the northeast, you reach Fara Sabina, a
city with medieval walls, an alleyway of cats, a stairway to nowhere. Down implausibly�…

Italo Calvino's immensely popular novel Invisible Cities brilliantly explains French
sociologist Jean Baudrillard's famous notion of simulation and simulacra. One does not�…

Reading a literary text means placing it in a context and constructing a meaning. It implies
inserting the text in the world and observing how it makes us think about that world while�…

Fifty years have passed since the original publication of Italo Calvino's magisterial book
Invisible Cities (Le citt� invisibili). Despite its brevity, the work's themes and poetics are�…

The early twentieth century saw a revival of vitalism, or the idea that something about life
always escapes quantification, and an interest in evolution across the sciences and social�…

As you head south and east, with your back to the sea, the city of Alvito draws you uphill
along ever-smaller roads, tightening spirals and switchbacks that soon have you confused�…