In introducing The Sphere and the Labyrinth Manfredo Tafuri counterposes the sphere and the labyrinth, a symbol of reason to a symbol of the darkness of reasoning. He refers to the approach to history of Carlo Ginzburg where the work of a historian forms "a labyrinthine path" which is seen metaphorically as a jig-saw puzzle where there is the theoretical risk of using its pieces for building new figures.^[20]

There comes a moment (though not always) I research when all the pieces begin to fall into place, as in a jig-saw puzzle. But unlike the jig-saw puzzle, where all the pieces are near at hand and only one figure can be assembled (and thus the correctness of each move be determined immediately), in research only some of the pieces are available, and theoretically more than one figure can be made from them. In fact, there is always the risk of using, more or less consciously, the pieces of the jig-saw puzzle as blocks in a construction game. For this reason, the fact that everything falls into place is an ambiguous sign: either one is completely right or completely wrong...