Opus musivum, opus variegatum: the mosaic form in early modern culture

This article seeks to contribute to what has been called ‘new’ – or ‘historical’ – formalism by attending to the form of things and by considering how such things might give rise to literary forms. It does so by locating an aesthetic form in the realm of things—namely, what was known as the ‘mosaic work’ ( opus musivum ) – and by tracing the ways in which such a material artefact might give shape to a variety of literary texts, such as the essay, the cento , the miscellaneous prose‐tract, even the Bible. Moreover, in focusing on the prose‐texts of Michel de Montaigne, John Donne, Robert Burton, Meric Casaubon, and Thomas Browne, among others, the present study demonstrates that prose, like its counterpart verse, does indeed possess a form of its own and that such a form contributes to the work done by prose.