Agamben again

Agamben says:

Every written work can be regarded as the prologue (or rather, the broken cast) of a work never penned, and destined to remain so, because later works, which in turn will be the prologues or the moulds  for other absent works, represent only sketches or death masks. The absent work, although it is unplaceable in any precise chronology, thereby constitutes the written works as prolegomena or paralipomena of a non-existent text; or, in a more general sense, as parerga which find their true meaning only in the context of an illegible ergon."

from Infancy and History , Giorgio Agamben

Par´er`gy

n.

1.

Something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous.

Paralipomena are things omitted or neglected that are added as a supplement. Origin: paraleipómena (Greek: things omitted, not told (prp. passive of paraleípein), equiv. to para- + leíp(ein) to leave behind + -omena neut. pl. prp. mediopassive suffix.^[1]

pro·le·gom·e·non  (prl-gm-nn, -nn)

n. pl. pro·le·gom·e·na (-n)

1. A preliminary discussion, especially a formal essay introducing a work of considerable length or complexity.

2. prolegomena (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Prefatory remarks or observations.