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Horst Steinke
126
tain aspects. As shown above, a juxtaposition
254
with Spinozan
thought can serve to bring Vichian thought into sharper focus.
6.1
Relationship of segments C and C’
255
Book II of
Scienza nuova,
entitled «Poetic Wisdom» («
Della
SAPIENZA POETICA
»)
256
, is routinely described as “encyclo-
pedic”, a term that fits the contents in more than one sense. Fol-
lowing the Prolegomena, the eleven major subdivisions of the
Book in terms of “sections”
257
– judging purely by their titles –
indeed are encyclopedic in the modern sense of a wide and di-
verse range of subjects
258
. However, Vico’s work, and especially
Book II, is encyclopedic primarily in the non-anachronistic sense
of the early modern period, or, more precisely, by the standard
of the “baroque encyclopedia”. Its aim was not mere compre-
hensive coverage but far more ambitious, namely, to put struc-
ture around knowledge, to organize it systematically
259
. The “en-
cyclopedic” scope of Book II can therefore be seen in this light.
It is evident not only in the subjects or areas of inquiry that Vico
chose to make part of the Book, but also, tellingly, what he failed
to include or pass over lightly. There are two areas, in particular,
that seem to fall into the latter category: (1) art, and (2) econom-
ics.
With respect to art, an important clarification and qualifica-
tion is called for: our subject is not aesthetics in general, nor aes-
thetics with respect to language in the form of poetry or other
literary genres
260
. Rather, we are concerned with the so-called
“visual arts” under which Giorgio Vasari, in the late Renaissance,
subsumed painting, sculpture, and architecture
261
. Apart from a
few scattered references to the visual or plastic arts elsewhere in
Scienza nuova
(§ 45, Egyptian pyramids, sculpture, casting; Greek
painting, sculpture, casting, engraving; § 99, Chinese painting,
porcelain; § 794, archaic Greek casting, engraving)
262
, in Book II
itself there is no “section” or even a short “chapter” devoted to
these arts. This is all the more noteworthy since in his observa-