The Philosophy of Giambattista VicoCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico
Croce, Benedetto
Vico, Giambattista, 1668-1744
Unpublished or scattered works of Vico not appearing in any of these
editions have been collected by Croce, _Bibliografia vichiana_ and
_Primo_ and _Secondo supplemento_: see below.
A critical edition of the second _Scienza Nuova_ is now being printed
in the _Collezione dei classici della filosofia modernadiretta da
B. Croce e G. Gentile_ (Bari, Laterza): the first volume is to be
published at the same time as the present monograph.[1] It is being
edited by Dr. Fausto Nicolini, who by using the autograph MSS. has
enriched Ferrari's edition, which contained the fragments suppressed in
the 1730 issue, by all the fragments of the intermediate redactions
down to the 1744 text; Vico's quotations have been checked and
references given in notes to the passages of classical and modern
authors to which he refers; and, finally, in deference to a wish
often expressed by men of letters as authoritative as Tommaseo, the
orthography and punctuation have been corrected. Ferrari's valuable
summaries are reproduced, with a few emendations, in Nicolini's edition.
Nicolini is also at work on a new edition of the complete works, to
form part of Laterza's collection of _Scrittori d' Italia,_ the scheme
and detailed index of which may be seen in Croce, _Secondo supplemento
alla Bibliografia vichiana_ (pp. 102-13). The fifth volume of this
collection, edited by Croce, is also to appear with the present
monograph.
Vico's Latin works have frequently been translated into Italian: the
_De antiquissima_ anonymously, perhaps by Vincenzo Monti (1816), and
later by Sarchi (1870): the first book of the _Diritto naturale_ by
Corcia (1839), Amante (1841), Giani (1855), and Sarchi (1866), and both
books, with the _De ratione_ and _De antiquissima,_ as we have said, by
Pomodoro.
The second _Scienza Nuova_ was translated into French, much
abbreviated, by Jules Michelet, under the title of _Principes de la
philosophie de l'histoire_ (Paris, Renouard, 1827) and frequently
reprinted; and again, in full, by an anonymous translator described as
"l'Auteur de l'Essai sur la formation du dogme catholique," in reality
Cristina Trivulzi, Princess of Belgioioso (Paris, Renouard, 1844).
Michelet also translated some of Vico's minor works, published with
the _Scienza Nuova_ in the edition of the _Oeuvres choisies de Vico_
(Paris, Hachette, 1835) and frequently reprinted.
In German there is a translation in full with good notes by W. E.
Weber (Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1844). There is also a summary of the first
book of the _Diritto universale_ by K. H. Müller, forming the first
volume of a series of Vico's _Kleine Schriften_ which was not continued
(Neubrandenburg, Brunslow, 1854).
The only English translation is a version of the book on Homer based
on Michelet's French translation and inserted in H. Nelson Coleridge's
_Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets_ (3rd ed.,
London, Murray, 1846).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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