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The first chapter offers a substantial introduction that surveys previous scholarship on lists and list-making and situates the simple but versatile form of the list in its historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts. Starting with an etymological contextualization of the term list, the introduction presents the list as a piece in the making—a handicraft—to then embrace the literary, poetic, and cultural manifestations of list-making throughout the centuries. As it invites us to reflect on how art or knowledge is produced through enumeration, the introduction further provides a condensed, analytical, and original discussion of the list as an epistemic, a literary, and a visual form.