The Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples boasts one of Europe's most beautiful collections of books and manuscripts. It was there that the Variantologists met for what may be their final congress. Their discussions traversed the "deep time" of the city and explored its media, philosophers, scientists and scholars. Those who engaged with Neapolitan affairs in Naples, and whose contributions are published in this volume, include art experts Hans Belting and John Berger, the artists Rosa Barba and Peter Blegvad, the papyrologist Luciano Canfora, the mathematician Chen Cheng-Yih, the physicist Otto E. Roessler, and the philosopher and artist Elisabeth von Samsonow. Early machine poetry texts by the experimental poet Nanni Balestrini are published here for the first time. Variantology 5 was designed by the filmmakers The Brothers Quay.