The concept expressed by the Roman term fama, although strictly linked to the activity of speaking, recalls a more complex form of collective communication that puts diverse information and opinions into circulation by -word of mouth, - covering the spreading of rumours, expression of common anxieties, and sharing of opinions about peers, contemporaries, or long-dead personages within both small and large communities of people. This -hearsay- method of information propagation, of chain-like transmission across a complex network of transfers of uncertain order and origin, often rapid...