192 / 298
Horst Steinke
192
body, nor converge on the recognition of the universal character of the author
of the
Iliad
and
Odyssey
which occurs only as of 1730)» (Id.,
Da Dante a Omero,
da Gravina a Vico
, in
Giambattista Vico e l’enciclopedia dei sapere
, cit., pp. 375-382,
p. 375; also as
Prefazione
, in G. Vico,
La discoverta del vero Omero seguita dal Giu-
dizio sopra Dante
, ed. by P. Cristofolini, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2006, pp. 5-19, pp.
10-11). To trace Vico’s evolving interest in, and recognition of, the Homeric
material for his explanatory project, one has to go back further, to his
Diritto
universale
of 1721/1722; see R. Ruggiero,
Nova Scientia Tentatur
, cit., p. 153.
397
The operative word is “essentially” since Vico carefully edited the 1730
text, with all of the corrections, refinements, additions/omissions meriting
close reading (For a side-by-side comparison of Book III in the 1730 and
1744 versions, using the 1744 text as the baseline, see G. Vico,
La discoverta del
vero Omero seguita dal Giudizio sopra Dante
, cit., pp. 26-125).
While a detailed discussion goes beyond our scope, a few of these changes
in Book III can be singled out (based on comparison of the text in
La Scienza
nuova. Le tre edizioni,
cit., pp. 666-698, 1137-1167):
1. Section I, Chapter I: Addition of § 783, in support of the concluding
statement: «Here is the Homer unrivaled in creating poetic characters [...]».
2. Section I, Chapter V, Proof VII: Expansion of § 817, culminating in the
statement: «And here we have a luminous proof of the fact that the first fables
were histories».
3. Section I, Chapter VI, Proof XIII: Addition of § 852, containing the
statement: «rhapsodes were stitchers-together (
consarcinatori
) of songs».
4. Section II, Chapter I, Proofs VI and VII: Addition of §§ 880, 881, stat-
ing: «In this fashion we show that the Homer who was the author of the
Iliad
preceded by many centuries the Homer who was the author of the
Odyssey
».
5. Section II, Chapter I, Proof XXI: Addition of § 897, stating that «nei-
ther philosophies, […] poetry, […] criticism, which came later, could create a
poet […] anywhere near to rivaling Homer».
6. Section II, Chapter I, Proof XXIV: Rewording of the ending of § 901,
reading: «But it was poetic wisdom itself whose fables provided occasions for
the philosophers to meditate their lofty truths, and supplied them also the
means for expounding them […]»; compared to the (maybe too) evocative
style of 1730: «ma essa
Sapienza Poetica
contenne nelle sue
favole,
come in
embri-
oni,
o
matrici
le
sublimi verità
[…] (but this
poetic wisdom
contains in its
fables
the
sublime truths
, like in
embryos
or
mothers’
wombs
)». The same expression «come in
loro
embrione,
e
matrice,
dentro la
Sapienza de’ Poeti Teologi
(like in their
embryo
,
and
mother’s womb
, inside the
Wisdom of the Theological Poets
)» – can be found in
the 1730 version, in Book I, “On Method”, in the first paragraph that corre-
sponds in its first half to § 338 in the 1744 version, but the second half of