III. BIOGRAPHY OF VICO

By way of supplement to the autobiography, Villarosa collected information on Vico's last years and published it as a continuation of that work in his edition of the Opuscoli, vol. i. (1818).

This supplement, together with everything else that has been published in the way of documents or contemporary records of Vico, may be found collected in the fifth volume of the new edition of his works above mentioned (p. 307) and entitled: L'Autobiografia, il carteggio e le poesie varie, ed. B. Croce (Bari, Laterza, 1911).

IV. LITERATURE ON VICO

There are only three monographs on Vico which may still be read with profit (that of Ferrari, La Mente del Vico, admirable editor though he was, may best be consigned to merciful oblivion); they are as follows:—

1. Carlo Cantoni, G.B.V., studi critici e comparativi (Turin, Civelli, 1867). Cf. for certain reservations A. Faggi, in Rivista filosofica italiana, vol. ix., 1906, pp. 593-606, and G. Gentile, in Critica, vol. v., 1907, pp. 197-201.

2. Karl Werner, G.B.V. als Philosoph und gelehrter Forscher, (Wien, Braumüller, 1881). Cf. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philos. Kritik, vol. lxxii., 1883, pp. 139-52.

3. Robert Flint, Vico (Edinburgh and London, 1884). (Italian translation by F. Finocchietti, Florence, 1888).

See what has been said of these above, p. 277. Of short and general studies the following are the best:—

1. B. Spaventa, G.B.V., in Prolusione è introduzione alle lezioni di filosofia (Naples, Vitale, 1862), pp. 83-102, reprinted under the title La Filosofia italiana nelle sue relazioni con la filosofia europea, ed. G. Gentile (Bari, Laterza, 1908); see pp. 111-35 of this reprint.

2. F. de Sanctis, Storia della letteratura italiana (Naples, Morano, 1870; new ed. Croce, Bari, Laterza, 1912), vol. ii. pp. 342-62.

3. F. Fiorentino, Lettere sopra la "Scienza Nuova" (Florence, 1865), reprinted in Scritti vari (Naples, Morano, 1871), pp. 161-211.

4. E. Cauer, G.B.V. und seine Stellung zur modernen Wissenschaft (in Deutsches Museum, edited by R. Prutz and W. Woelfsohn, Leipzig, Hinrichs, year I, 1851, vol. i. pp. 249-65).

For special points the following may be consulted:—

1. F. A. Wolf, G.B.V. über den Homer (in Museum der Alterthumswissenschaft, Berlin, 1807, vol. ii. pp. 555-70).

2. J. K. von Orelli, Vico und Niebuhr (in Schweizerisches Museum, Aarau, vol. i. p. 184 sqq.).

3. C. Iannelli, Sulla natura e necessità della scienza delle cose e delle storie umane (Naples, Porcelli, 1818, and Milan, Fontana, 1832).

4. Emerico Amari, Critica di una scienza della legislazione comparata (Genoa, Istituto dei Sordomuti, 1857). Cf. on this book K. Werner, E.A. in seinem Verhältnis zu G.B.V. (Wien, 1880; from the Sitzungsberichte der phil.-histor. Klasse of the Imperial Academy of Vienna, vol. xcvi.).

5. F. Acri, Teoria del V. intorno alle idee O paradimmi (in Abbozzo di una teoria delle idee, Palermo, Lao, 1870; and with modifications in the volume Videbimus in aenigmate, Bologna, Mareggiane 1907, pp. 287-313).

6. E. Cenni, an exposition of Vico's metaphysic in the volume entitled Considerazioni sull' Italia ad occasione del traforo del Gottardo (Florence, Cellini, 1884), pp. 109-82.

7. E. Bouvy, De V. Cartesii adversario (Paris, Hachette, 1889).

8. E. Bouvy, La Critique dantesque au dix-huitième siècle: Dante et V. (Paris, Leroux, 1892).

9. G. Sorel, Étude sur V. (in Devenir social, Paris, vol. ii., 1896) and see esp. the same author's Le Système historique de Renan (Paris, Jacques, 1905), passim.

10. B. Labanca, G.B.V. e i suoi critici cattolici (Naples, Pierro, 1898).

11. G. Rossi, V. nei tempi di V. (in Rivista filosofica italiana, vol. ii., 1899, pp. 294-319, and part 2, ibid. vol. x., 1907, pp. 602-34).

12. A. Olivieri, Gli studi omerici di G.B.V. (in Atti della r. Accad. di archeologia, lettere e belle arti, Naples, vol. xxiv., 1905).

13. C. Trabalza, Storia della grammatica italiana (Milan, Hoepli, 1908), ch. xii. pp. 364-76.

14. P. Garofalo, Acrisia vichiana nella "Scienza Nuova," critical annotations (Naples, Detken, 1909): cf. F. Nicolini, in Critica, vol. viii., 1910, pp. 374-8.

15. G. Maugain, Étude sur l'évolution intellectuelle de l'Italie de 1657 à 1750 environ (Paris, Hachette, 1909).

16. On my own previous work upon Vico, it should be observed that the materials of the chapter on Vico's aesthetic doctrine in Croce, Estetica (4th ed., Bari, Laterza, 1912, ch. v. pp. 255-71), have been worked up in a more mature form into ch. iv. of the present monograph: the essay on Vico's Ethics (in Critica, vi., 1908, pp. 71-7) has been absorbed into chaps, vi.-viii.; and similarly that on the Lineamenti di storia letteraria in G.B.V. (ibid. pp. 460-80) into chaps, xvi. and xviii.; my other scattered writings have in general been only of technical, philological, or polemical interest. In the miscellaneous Studi in onore di F. Torraca (Naples, Perrella, 1912) is a short essay by me upon La Dottrina del riso e dell' ironia in G.B.V.

The whole of the literature on Vico, together with extracts from rare books, minor works, and articles, and with unpublished documents together with fully detailed notes on the editions of Vico's writings, is collected in the three works to which I have frequently referred, namely: B. Croce, Bibliografia vichiana contenente nella parte I il catalogo delle edizioni, traduzioni e manoscritti delle opere di G.B.V.; nella parte II, quello dei giudizi e lavori storico-critici intorno al V. sino al-l' anno corrente; nella parte III lettere inedite del V. e al V., documenti e altri scritti inediti o rari, e varie appendici illustrative (Naples, 1904: reprinted from Atti dell' Accademia pontaniana, Naples, vol. xxxiv.; pp. xii. 127, 4to);—Supplemento alla Bibliografia vichiana (Naples, 1907; reprinted from Atti, vol. xxxvii. pp. 34, 4to)—and Secondo Supplemento (Naples, 1911, reprinted from Atti, vol. xl. pp. 116, 4to); the whole collected in one volume under the title: Bibliografia vichiana; raccolta di tre memorie presentate all' Accademia pontaniana di Napoli nel 1903, 1907 e 1910, with an appendix by F. Nicolini (Bari, Laterza, 1911).[1]

NOTE

PASSAGES OF VICO'S WORKS TO WHICH ESPECIAL REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE COURSE OF THE EXPOSITION

Chapter I.—For this chapter see the De ratione, the De antiquissima, the two Riposte al Giornale dei letterati, and the first part of the Autobiography. For the note (p. 8) on the spirit of the Reformation, see Opere, ed. Ferrari, 2nd ed. vi. 5.

Chapter II.—Opp. v. 147, 239, 136-7, 51; iv. 33; v. 50-51, 147; iv-33, 63-4; iii. 200; v. 17, 97, 103, 149-50, 174; iv. 20, 248; iii. 232; iv. 20; v. 562.

Chapter III.—Opp. v. 147, 162, 99, 42; iv. 73, 81, 174-5; v. 91, 145.

Chapter IV.—Opp. v. 141, 166, 42; iii. 232, 272-3; iv. 20; v. 175, 259, 107; iv. 22, 33; v. 180, 441, 209-10, 201; iv. 205, 206; iii. 274, 275; v. 230, 211, 169; iv. 201, 233, 365; v. 55, 82, 187, 196-7; iv. 224; v. 110, 112, 168, 212, 237, 217, 379, 440, 212, 238; iv. 24.

Chapter V.—Opp. v. 80-81; iv. 20, 21, 74; v. 169; v. 161-7; iv. 191-3, 168-9, v. 18; iv. 169, 50-51; iii. 26; ii. 96-7; v. 166, 43, 169, 420-21, 387, 192, 379, 108.

Chapter VI.—Opp. v. 437, 18; iv. 165; v. 109, 110, 534; vi. 15; v. 532; iii. 12; v. 106; v. 49; iv. 343; vi. 127; iii. 30; iv. 87; iii. 57; v. 490; iv. 40-41; iii. 30; iv. 334; iv. 35; iii. 12, 30; v. 97; iii. 234-40; iv. 49; v. 98, 131; iv. 42-3.

Chapter VII.—Opp. v. 142, 168, 173, 248, 250; iv. 291; v. 106, 242, 142, 137-8, 290; iv. 175-7, 42-3; v. 153, 241; iv. 9; v. 96, 242, 574; iv. 332; v. 97; iv. 176-7, 43; v. 176, 131.

Chapter VIII.—Opp. iv. 309-13; v. 185; iii. 55, 28, 43-4; v. 97; iii. 47-52, 52-3; iv. 14, 45, 57; v. 148, 133; iii. 53, 85-7, 58; v. 240-41, 484; iv. 170-71, 180, 351.

Chapter IX.—Opp. v. 462-3, 544; iv. 43-4, 46; iii. 94, 192-3, 85, 87; iv. 18, 335, 15; v. 129-30, 563, 564; iii. 55; v. 571; iv. 245, 13, 159-60; Scritti inediti, Del Giudice, pp. 11-14.

Chapter X.—Opp. v. 13-14, 128, 143-4, 172, 570; iii. 22; iv. 42; v. 97, 572, 45-6, 463.

Chapter XI.—Opp. iv. 62; v. 116, 183, 558, 559, 561, 570; vi. 127; iii. 95; iv. 249.

Chapter XII.—Same sources as for Ch. I. and also vi. 105-6; v. 524-5.

Chapter XIII.—Opp. v. 60; iii. 249; v. 157, 167-70, 108; iii. 251-61; iv. 17, 253; v. 103, 217-18, 562; Scritti inediti, p. 9.

Chapter XIV.—Opp. v. 94-6, 58, 79, 321, 63-4, 84-5, 96, 93, 100; iv. 27-8, 29-30, 97, 169, 200, 271; v. 182-3, 61-4; iii. 230; iv. 236-43, 184; iii. 450-59; v. 113, 115, 149, 211, 59, 74, 100, 183; iv. 75-6, 89; v. 206; iv. 99; iii. 273; v. 260; iii. 280; v. 430-31, 202-3, 98-9.

Chapter XV.—Opp. v. 356, 357, 255, 355, 121, 361-3, 363-365. 340, 341, 253, 251-3, 259, 132, 118, 278, 311, 309, 307, 118-19, 120, 121, 481, 484-6, 293-4, 246, 526, 528, 530-31, 223-5, 444, 43, 114-15, 222-3, 460, 220, 194, 191-3, 186, 249, 369, 371, 372, 375, 382, 403, 69; iv. 54, 83-4, 225-6.

Chapter XVI.—Opp. v. 380-81, 422-5, 452, 277, 360-61, 381, 426, 435-6, 465, 425, 427, 442, 427-32, 440-41, 445. 448-9, 451, 455, 428-9, 445, 449-56, 445-6, 448, 452, 378-81, 441-2, 453-4, 78, 446-7, 458-60, 433-4, 439; iv. 178; vi. 46; v. 100-101, 467-80, 381, 223-4, 457, 100. 102, 226, 438; iv. 163, 25, 63, 200, 128; iii. 295.

Chapter XVII.—Opp. iv. 249-50, 228; v. 183, 188; iii. 306-10; iv. 93, 34, 155; v. 86, 277, 322-3, 416, 129, 413-416, 81, 326, 86; iii. 473; v. 509-10, 102; iii. 469-75, 87, 122-3; iv. 67-71; v. 123-4, 191, 85, 100, 88, 290-91, 310, 496, 88-92, 123, 495-505. 502, 327. 525-30, 531, 534, 596, 474-476, 401, 551, 555, 514, 476, 515, 537-8, 122, 503, 521, 508, 523, 503, 514.

Chapter XVIII.—Opp. v. 550, 537, 259, 540-41. 546, 555-556; iv. 101, 545, 347-8, 552, 555, 544, 554, 537, 539, 538, 551, 328, 547, 552, 512, 553, 550, 508-9, 68, 488, 547, 538-9, 231, 233, 204, 222, 226, 361, 425, 428-39, 457; iii. 357. vi. 37, 45-6; iii. 270; vi. 35, 37-8, 42, 48; v. 429, 439; iv. 198-200; vi. 38; v. 43, 226, 555, 544, 508-9, 557-8; iv. 235-6, 71.

Chapter XIX.—For this chapter see the De ratione, the first pages of the Autobiography and the letters to Esperti, De Vitry, and Solla. On wisdom see also Opp. v. 153.

INDEX OF NAMES