31 / 298
Vico’s Ring
31
Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2010. In so far as so much specific ma-
terial in
Diritto Universale
flowed into
Scienza nuova
, Ruggiero’s commentary is
also highly valuable for the understanding of the latter. See also Id.,
Il sistema
delle leggi e la finzione poetica nel
Diritto Universale, cit., pp. 181-205. A. R. Ca-
ponigri commented: «The “Nova Scientia Tentatur” clearly contains, in a fa-
vorite phrase of Croce’s, the
Scienza Nuova
and particularly the “nuova arte
critica” “
in nuce”
(“in a nutshell”)» (Id.,
Philosophy and Philology: The “New Art of
Criticism” of Giam Battista Vico
, in «The Modern Schoolman», 59, 1982, 2, pp.
81-116, p. 85; also published as
Filosofia e filologia. La «nuova arte della critica» di
Giambattista Vico
, trans. by M. P. Fimiani, in «BCSV», XII-XIII, 1982-1983,
pp. 29-61, p. 32).
38
In English as
On the Study Methods of our Time
, trans. by E. Gianturco,
preface by D. Ph. Verene, Ithaca-London, Cornell University Press, 1990.
However, the inaugural oration of 1719 which in its original form has been
lost, should not be overlooked; see R. Ruggiero,
Nova Scientia Tentatur
, cit., p.
10.
39
As M. Sanna explained, Vico envisioned grounding historiography
(“philology”) in first principles (“philosophy”), and by doing so, making it a
“science” (Id.,
Le epistole vichiane e la nascita dell’idea di scienza nuova
, in «BCSV»,
XXIV-XXV, 1994-1995, pp. 119-129, p. 123). It is the title of Chapter 1 of
the Second Part, “On the Constancy of Philology”, in Book II,
On the Constan-
cy of the Jurisprudent
(The First Part is “On the Constancy of Philosophy”). See
«NVS», 23, 2005, pp. 31-41.
40
It is also reproduced in
Keys to the
New Science, cit., pp. 47-50. J. D.
Schaeffer calls it «a first sketch of the chronological table in book 1 of the
New Science
(1730/1744)» (
ibid.,
p. 45). We are arguing for a more fundamental
and deliberate process of transformation. Ruggiero also observed: «La tavola
cronologica vichiana mostra assonanze con quelle tentate dagli altri cronografi
sei-settecenteschi (Vico’s chronological table shows discrepancies with those
proposed by other 17
th
/18
th
century historians)» (Id.,
Nova Scientia Tentatur,
cit., p.
151, footnote 1). See also V. Placella,
La mancata edizione veneziana della
Scienza Nuova, cit., p. 175, footnote 42. Chronological tables, of course, were
not an invention of the early modern age, witness the late classical chronicles
of Eusebius and Jerome.
41
Scienza nuova
1730/1744 includes also a column for “Scythians”, and see
§§ 99-100 for an inkling regarding reasons for their insertion and inclusion by
virtue of their “esoteric wisdom”, which is to play a key part in the cultural
scheme laid out later in Book II.
42
An analogous dialectic, at a different heuristic level, is described by M.
Lollini: «Certo è vero che il feudalesimo meridionale influenza la sua inter-