

Horst Steinke
18
tive ring structure. As can be readily seen, the selection of the
highlights of each segment already reflects the theorized sym-
metric arrangement
18
. While the
Scienza nuova
is divided into five
Books
19
, the proposed subdivision does not strictly adhere to this
numerical template but endeavors to be guided and determined
rather by the contents of individual parts of the work, regardless
of where the dividing line between them may be situated in the
text
20
.
The result is the following layout:
A
: Book I, §§ 43-118: Discussion of the Chronological Ta-
ble
21
(a synoptic listing of notable developments among the He-
brews, Chaldeans, Scythians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks,
and Romans). Vico’s central aim is to identify «the proper start-
ing point for universal history, which all scholars say is defective
in its beginnings» (§ 51). He presents Egyptian civilization in
terms of the trifold partition into «the three ages of gods, heroes
and men» (§ 68), and then deals with selective Greek and Roman
history as they exemplify these “macro” tendencies. Rome, in
particular, is portrayed in terms of its laws and forms of govern-
ance, and as «an instance of an ideal eternal history traversed in
time by the histories of all nations» (§ 114).
B
: Book I, §§ 119-360: This part of Book I is divided in three
sections, entitled “Elements”, “Principles”, and “Method”, re-
spectively. In the “Elements”, one of the key programmatic “ax-
ioms” is: «Doctrines must take their beginning from that of the
matters of which they treat» (§ 314); another is the need for both
“philosophy” and “philology” (§ 140) to become a «new art of
criticism» (§ 143), and the existence of a «common sense of men
with respect to human needs or utilities, which are the two
sources of the natural law» (§§ 141-145). Vico correlates the
three “ages” with three types of “languages”, human behavior,
and governance, with the most extensive treatment of the
“childhood”
22
of human civilization, and Roman political history,
especially, at its inception. In the “Principles”, referring back to