Introduction : comparative touchstones of literature -- Auerbach's scar -- The siege of Baghdad : Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Orhan Pamuk, and the commissions of history -- Of learned ignorance : Nicholas of Cusa and cardinal spaces of culture -- Memories of the future : Giordano Bruno remembers us -- A carceral archive and the culture of conspiracy : Fray José Servando Teresa de Mier Noriega y Guerra, enlightenment's contestant -- The arts of mitigation, the garden in the barbarian : Zbigniew Herbert -- The labors of Cassandra : Arendt in Jerusalem -- The People's Republic and the republic of letters : the alarming Gao Xingjian -- Memo from the next millennium : a coda for Calvino -- The inventions of comparative literature : a minute on method