133 / 298
Vico’s Ring
133
first and essential concept of the “order”)» (Id.,
Topica, retorica e argomentazione
nella «prima filosofia» del Vico
, in «Revue Internationale de Philosophie», 33,
1979, pp. 188-201, p. 199; on the intellectual climate underlying “encyclope-
dism” in the 17
th
century, see especially Vasoli’s
L’enciclopedismo del Seicento,
Naples, Bibliopolis, 2005, online at
<www.iisf.it>, under tab
Edizione online
).
This view is shared by J. Loveland,
Encyclopedias and Genre, 1670-1750
, in
«Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies», 36, 2013, 2, pp. 159-175, p. 173,
footnote 1: «In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the word “encyclope-
dia” was used as a title for systematic, non-alphabetical summaries of
knowledge and disciplines, but this usage faded in the eighteenth century». See
also E. Nuzzo,
I caratteri dei popoli nella nuova scienza delle nazione di Vico. Tra cau-
salità sacra, causalità storica, causalità naturale
, cit., pp. 129-178, p. 132. G. Mazzot-
ta highlights a different possible connotation of “baroque encyclopedia”: «Its
eccentric and elliptical style and its fascination with monsters of the imagina-
tion and asymmetrical shapes […] eschews classical forms of representation»
(Id.,
The New Map of the World,
cit., p. 97).
260
Unlike B. Croce who asserted that «[a]esthetic may in fact be consid-
ered as a discovery of Vico’s […]» (Id.,
The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico
, cit.,
p. 46). The statement is followed by an excursus on “poetry” (pp. 47-61). At
the same time, Croce acknowledged that «he [Vico] did not deal with it in a
separate treatise […]» (p. 46). See also A. Caponigri,
Time and Idea
, cit., p. 83:
«[…] Croce is most correct in characterizing Vico as the founder of the sci-
ence of aesthetics». For Caponigri, also, “art” is synonomous with “poetry”;
however, Caponigri gives “poetry” the wider, and deeper, Vichian application
to «their [the people’s] laws, their wisdom, their religious rites, their sacred
formulas of birth, marriage and death, of initiation, of war and peace, and
their rude speculation on the cosmos» (
ibid.
, p. 83). More often than not,
when the topic of aesthetics is dealt with in Vico studies, it remains focused
on, or is limited to, its role in literature; see, for example, A. Zacarés,
La Scien-
za Nuova
y el gusto estético
, in «CsV», 13-14, 2001-2002, pp. 253-273; G. Dorfles,
Myth and Metaphor in Vico and in Contemporary Aesthetics
, trans. by E. Gianturco,
in
Giambattista Vico: An International Symposium
, cit., pp. 577-590; G. Patella,
Senso, corpo, poesia. Giambattista Vico e l’origine dell’estetica moderna,
Milan, Guerini,
1995, pp. 95-130; V. Hösle,
Einleitung
,
cit., pp. CLXXXVI-CXCIV; L. Amoro-
so,
Vico e la “nascita” dell’estetica
, in
Pensar para un nuevo siglo
, vol. I, cit., pp. 23-
36. H. A. de Oliveira Guido includes painting in his discussion of art in
Vico e
l’emancipazione delle belle arti: L’arte come creazione ed espressione della mente humana
,
in
Pensar para un nuevo siglo
, vol. I, cit., pp. 175-188, pp. 180-186, but in the
context of opposition between «reason» and «imagination».