34 / 298
Horst Steinke
34
again in Book V, joining
corso,
and
ricorso
(in the Middle Ages): «These
nexi
freed by the Petelian Law correspond exactly to the vassals, who must at first
have been called liege men as being bound (
legati
) by this knot» (§ 1066).
However, it is not in the
Scienza nuova
of 1730/1744 where Vico draws these
historical parallels for the first time; it is actually already in
Diritto universale
where he points them out, see Book I (
On the One Principle and One End of Uni-
versal Law
), Chapter 129, on which Ruggiero comments: «Dunque la teoria del
ricorso […] è presente qui, nel suo fondamento storico-giuridico, con uno
stupefacente ribaltamento di prospettiva (The theory of the
ricorso
is therefore
present here, in its historical-juridical foundation, with an astounding reversal
of point of view)» (Id.,
Nova Scientia Tentatur,
cit., pp. 93-95). For aspects of
(late) medieval law, see M. Ascheri,
The Laws of Late Medieval Italy
(1000-1500):
Foundations for a European Legal System,
Leiden, Brill, 2013; R. W. Kaeuper
(ed.
by),
Law, Governance, and Justice: New Views on Medieval Constitutionalism,
Leiden,
Brill, 2013. For an interpretation of the Chronological Table/Notes from a
different point of view (and therefore not necessarily mutually exclusive), see
V. Vitiello,
Saggio introduttivo,
cit., pp. CXX-CXXV.
47
To conclude this section, we would like to cite some Vico scholars who
have drawn attention to the symmetry or circularity of the beginning and con-
clusion of
Scienza nuova
although not necessarily in the same way or for the
same reasons as adduced here: Battistini, for example, wrote: «The structure
of the
New Science
imitates the circularity of events and draws its own circum-
ference, in that the “conclusion of the work” is symmetrical with the “pic-
ture” of the beginning» (Id.,
On the Encyclopedic Structure of the
New Science, cit.,
p. 24); similarly, Marcus: «Vico opens and closes the
New Science
with concen-
tric themes: piety, providence, and religion» (Id.,
Vico and the Hebrews
, cit., p.
14); Lollini perhaps comes closest to our accentuation: «Vico tende a stabilire
analogia tra istituti Romani e istituti medievali, stabilendo così una certa con-
tinuità circolare tra i diversi cicli (Vico intends to establish an analogy between
Roman and medieval institutions, thus establishing a certain circular continui-
ty between the different cycles)» (Id.,
Il mito come precomprensione storica
, cit., p.
40).