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«The ninth book of Paracelsus' treatise On the Nature of Things is entitled De signatura rerum naturalium (On the Signatures of Natural Things). The idea that all things bear a sign that manifests and reveals their invisible qualities is the original core of Paracelsian epistemology... In this sense, if – as Paracelsus writes – “all things, herbs,seeds, stones, roots reveal in their qualities, forms and figures what is in them”, if “they are all known through their signatum”, then “signature is the science through which everything that is hidden is found, and without this art nothing profound can be done”. This science is, however, like all knowledge, a consequence of sin, because Adam in Eden was absolutely “unmarked” and would have remained so had he not “fallen into nature”, which “leaves nothing unmarked”».

Thus begins this book by Agamben dedicated to the problems of method and divided into three parts, corresponding to three reflections on three specific aspects: a) the concept of paradigm; b) the theory of signatures; c) the relationship between history and archaeology. The starting point for these considerations is an investigation into the method of a scholar such as Michel Foucault, from whom Agamben claims to have learned a great deal in recent years. Thus, alongside reflections on the thought of Paracelsus, the volume also constitutes a new reading of the great French philosopher and his archaeology of knowledge.

Giorgio Agamben has taught at Italian and foreign universities, and his work has been translated into many languages. Among his books we recall the complete edition of Homo Sacer (2018) and, more recently, First Philosophy, Last Philosophy: The Knowledge of the West between Metaphysics and Sciences (2023), The Unburdened Mind. Profanations. Nudities. Fire and the Tale (2023), The Body of Language. esperruquancluzelubelouzerirelu (2024), The Language That Remains. Time, History, Language (2024), Friendships (2025), and At the River’s Mouth (2025). Published by Bollati Boringhieri: Means Without End: Notes on Politics (1996), Remnants of Auschwitz: The Archive and the Witness (1998), The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the “Letter to the Romans” (2000), The Coming Community (2001), The Open: Man and Animal (2002), State of Exception (2003), Nymphs (2007), Signatura Rerum: On Method (2008), The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (2009), Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty (2012), Karman: A Brief Treatise on Action, Guilt, and Gesture (2017), and Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm, Homo Sacer II, 2 (2015; expanded ed. 2019).