Giambattista Vico and the Risorgimento

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Citation Noether, Emiliana P. 1969. Giambattista Vico and the Risorgimento. Harvard Library Bulletin XVII (3), July 1969: 309-319.

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URI NG the first half of the ninetc enth century Giambattista Vico finall)T enjoyed the recognition that he had sought all his life. The n1an ,vho had ruefully commented that "'he Jived in his country not only as a foreigner, but also unkno\vn./' 1 though convjnccd that he had hcen "born for the glory of ... Italy," 2 ,vas given a prominent p1ace in the Pantheon of Italian geniuses erected by the n1cn of the Risorgimento. To his country1nen his na111ebecame -asource of national pride and his ideas provided the basis for many of the Risorgimento's earl)Tdreams of 2n I taI )T ,v h ich through indep endenc e \v ould be fulfilling its dcstinJ" 11s a nation. In attempting to nnd the reasons for his appeal at this mo-

n1ent in Italian histOr)7 1 one n1ust first consider the general European int elice rual outlook. ll on1an tici sn1, ,vi th its sensitive a, va re n ess of the !viid cl 1e Agcst its intcres t in i ndiv idu al peop] est their m yrh s and legends, and its search for the , vorId of im aginati on, provided a f ra 111e of reference rccepti vc to Vi co' s p hiluso phi cal and historical ana I y sis~ "\Vhile p hilosoph ic ally

and historicall)7 Herd er and He gel cliffered from \ 7ico 1 superficjally there ,vcrc points of contact among them, and as the ider.s of the Gcr1nan ron1antics became kno\v11 in Italy, Vico ,vas quoted more and 1norc ns -a national co11ntcrpart of these foreign influences.. .s A.i1- other factor to be noted ,vns \.Tico,spopularity in France, after 1\1ichc- let's rather free translation of the 1744 edition of the Scienz-trnuova appeared in 182 7.4 This ,vas not the fir.st time that VicoJs ,vork had

tt Pap er pr~scntcd at the A tncrlc an Ii istor j c~I Assocfo.tion n1ccting in N cw· York ·on 18 Deceml, er I 9 68r 1 1 G ian1ba ttist.a \ 7i cot ~,A utobi ogra:fia, jn Opere~ cd. F. Nicolini ( 1\1i1an-Na ple5 1 [ 1958] ), p. ! 7~ l bid., p. 60.

.aFor some of the d iscu s~ion on the re] ative merits of Vi co, He.rd er I and I-Icgd see: Antologia., No. 116 (Augnst 1830), 36i Pragresro, XIII ( I 836)t x~xj and XXI

.( 1838), 295; Rivista europ.ea~Ill ( 1840)1 pt. iij,464-470; Afuseo di scienza e letteratur111 n.s., VI, yr. II ( 1845) 336. 4 Jules M tchelett Principes de la phil oropbi e de r biJt oire tr adui t de la Sci en':l"A

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) 310 H 1.1r1..:i1rd T .... i br nr y Bu 11eti 1i been translated. Fi vc yea.rs car lier a G ein1'dn v ers1on, co nsidera b 1y n1ore accurate than ?viichelet's French rendition, had been published at Leipzig hy "'''ilheltn Ern~t '''eber.r; Ho,vcvcr, in a Gerrnan)r ,vhcrc the ron1antic movcn1ent hnd begun early, ''ico did not arouse much interest. "\i\'hile recognizing "\1ico's contribution to history, "\\1ebcr pointed out in the preface that the Italian~s ideas on I~]on1crand lto- man history had been supeiscdcd hy the ,vork of \ .,roJf and Niebuhr. In France, ho\vcver., Vjco ,vas long popular.. J\.lmost t\vcnty years after the appearance of Jv1ichclct'sbook, the Re-vuedes deux 'Juondes inforn1ed its readers "that the philosophy o.f hi::;tof)7 "'as at hon1e in Naples ,vhcre it had been born fro1n ,1icu 1.s nlcditations.,, 6 In En- g]andt Coleridge's son-in-la,v included a translation of the third book .of the S cie11z.ll11uo ·va on the discovery of the true Homer in the second and third editions ( 1 834 nnd 1 846) of the lutroduction to tbe Study of the Greek ClassicalPoets Desig11ed Priucipally for the Use of J-7 oung Personsat School and College. To continue tracing \rico's foitunes outside ltaly during the early )•cars of the p8.stcentury ,vould lead us filr f ron1 the subject matter of this paper. Brief ref crencc has been 1nadc to his fortunes -abroadsolel)T because this recognition con- tributtd to \ 7ico's reno\vn at ho1ne. J\1an}rlta]ians ,vcre first intro- duced to \lico by l\1iche1ct,and only after reading the French version of the Scienza nuo7..'a did they turn to the orjginal. Those ,vho had n1rcad)7 kno,vn the \rr7ork,re-exan1incd it ,vith fresh appreciation after it had been praised and discussed else,vherc. For \ 1ico, ,vho .spent the last nv·ent)r )•Cars of his life ,vriting and revising the Scieuza 11uo-va, this ,vork ,vas ''a history of n1ankind's idcas, cust on1s, and deeds 7 • • an idea 1 eternal histOf) 7 fthe pat- t crn of] ,vhich is foilo,vcd by the histories of all nations in their rise, progress ... decadence, and end.'' s To arrive at a formulation of this ''ideal eternal histor)ru Vico had defined the princjp]es or la,vs rcgu1ating the rise 2nd decay of nations as corsi and ricorsi, a cyclical

1Ul01)ade J. B. Vi co eI precedes a~1ut.di Sco Uri sur fe .ryitbnc et la vie de f auteur (Paris, 1817) .

.[j Giambattista Vico.~ Gtundzt'ige eh1cr 1u:uen lf'"i rsc11scba ft iih e-r die g en1ehl- scbJ{ tl irbe Natur der Vii Iker, sus dem Itaiienisch von Dr. \\rilhcln1 Ernst ,vehcr (Leipzig, J fh.1), Pari~, 14 July 18431 348+ t Ghmh~ttista Vico, l ...a Scie1izt1.nuova second a ( J 744), ed. Ji". Nicolini (Bari, l 94? ). I, l40. -ii I hid.! I, I 28.

dcvclopn1ent ,vhcrcby ~'a nation in rising n1a)7 reach .... a state of perfection, and later dccay·jng., jt can rise again."~ \ 1ico, hin1self.,Jiv- ing ~t the tirne he did, had no nationa1ist .senti111ents,but nineteenth century Itn]ians found in his philosophy of history argun1cnts and supp.ort for their O-\.Vll nationa lis111.U nlikc other states, ln1.ly·had failed to complete its cy.. cle of national dcvclop1ncnt and thus still had to fulfill its destiny, according to Vico,s principles of the historical de- velop1ncnt of n1ankind. In Ital)T recognition outside of lin1ilcdscho1ar1y and friendly circles began for \ 1ico early j n the nineteenth century. The battle of j_\,la- rengo ,vas in1portant., not only for Napoleon but also for the philosopher of history. Bonaparte's victory opened the doors of lVlilanto a group of exiles from the Neapolitan revolution of 1799 ,vho found ref ugc in the Second Cisa1pine Republic. l\·Icn like "\7incenzo Cuoco and Francesco Lomonaco had studied , 7ico, considered then1sc]ves his disciples, ::ind began to lay the bases for the popularit)r \Tico ,vas to enjoy during tl1c Risorgi1ncnto. The first edition of the Scie11za 11uo-va to appear after the Neapolitan one of 1744 came out in lv1ilan in 1801 •10 During the next fifty years \ 1ico's \Vorks ,vent through 11u1nerouseditions n1ainiy· at I\1ilan, and Naples., -and until the achievcrncnt of Ita]ian unity, Viconian concepts echoed through 1nu ch of the th io lei n g an u ,v ri ting of 1tali an int ellc ctu als. As one ex:amines their \V orks.,glimpses of Vic o ta nta1izc the reader; ho,vcver, one 1nust be careful not to credit Vico indiscri1ninately ,vith the paternity of 1nan)r of the ideas on history, political dcvelop- 1nent1 national pride, and philosophy, voiced during the Risorgimcntoa This period sa,v mucl1 intellectual fern1ent as Italians songht ans\vers and solutions to their tllany problen1s. In other ,vords, I ~1n suggest- ing that Vico ,vas read and became popular bee-a.usein hi1n Italians of the first half of the nineteenth century found jdcas that ,vcre no longer strange and unintelligible as they had perhaps been a century c~rlier. ,,rhcre Vico is not directly quoted~ or referred to, or ,vhere the relationship to his ideas is not a clear one, the reader .should not automaticall}rthink "Vico/~ \Vhere Herder might apply· ns ,veil. Like l\1ichelet, ,vho bcca1ne an exponent of Vico because in \ 1ico he

G jamba ttista \Tico., La Scicnza nuova prinia ( l I i. s )• cd. F, Nicolini ( Ilari, 1931 ) ,. p. 1 r. M This 1801 edition is novt rarer than the orjginal 1744 one. See Benedetto Croce,

Bi blio grafi a vi chiana, accresciuta e rieh: boratC1 d t1 F. N ic.oUni (Na pl es, 1947), 11 5 3,

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) 312 H((rvardLibrary Bnllctin

found n1any concepts. already dear to hin11 so, many Italians appre- ciated Vico because they found affirn1ation and support for their o,vn goals in his ,vritings. 1\1oreovcr, it should be noted that not all Italian inte1lectuals ac~ ccpted all of Vico's ideas. Some agreed ,vith part of rhcn1;others djs~ agreed \vith all he had ,vritten., but honored hin1 as -an lt3lian und philosopher; others ·111isreadand 1nisquoted him; and still others borro,ved free]y fron1 his ,vorks and proclain1ed then1sclves\Ticonians ,vithout really understanding him. That, after 1800~ he \Vas jncrcas- ingly kno"~n and read appears clear from the n1any editions of his ,vorks in the £rst half of the century and from even a cursory glance at the Jitcrar3Tand historical ,vritings of the period. "\"\1hat n1akes an analysis of ''ico's influence 111orecomplex is that ,rico ,vas praised by various people for different reasons~ Though., in general, conserva- tive Catholics did not accept the Viconian explanation of historical development in tcrn1s of the corsi and ricorsi, since it seemed to go counter to the Biblical account" so1ne Catholics did approve of \Tico for his opposition to Descartes. Those "' ho follo\ved Con1te sa,v in

\'ico 1 ,vho had tried to trace the la,vs of hu1nan history some hundred years earlier, a precursor of positi visn1; a.nd the idealists claimed to sec an affinity benvccn hin1 and 1--IegcL T,vo aspects of ,rico,s thought influenced Italians. 11 The one, ,vhich ,vc may call car Iy \Ticot derived f ro111his so1nc\vhat fanciful vie, vs on an ancient ltaljan greatness and .supremacy~ going back to n tin1e , vhen a pre-Roman, Italic pc op1 c had civi Ii zed th cir neighbors. \Tico discussed them in an carl) 7 \vork, De a11tiquisshnaitalor-11111 sapientia ex li11guaoriginibus erue'IJda,,vrittcn in 1710. Ho,vcvcr, ,vhat \Ve ma)T label the later \ 1ico a.nd the one on ,Yhich his reputation rests more securely is the Vico of the Scie11zrr1111ova. In the interpretation of historJ7 as a sequence of corsiand ricorsiand the belief that each pcople developed its civilization indep cndently· of one another, \Tico rejected his previous clain1for the supremacy of an early I tali an people ,vho had been masters and teachers of the Romans and called such claims on the part of any· people boria na2io11ale,or national arro- 12 gance. 0 bv iously- th c t\ vo vic,vs are inco1npa ti h 1e J and a shre,v d

ll See the dfacussjon on \" ico and the role played by his ideas jn the f o rn1ation of national sentiments in Emiliana.P. No ether, Seedr of ltC1lim ·z.-latjo11alinnfj1700~181 j (New York, 1951)t pp. 48-6i. ll Giambattista Vico, La S cienza nuova seconda ( 1744), ed. F. Nicolhu ( Barit 1942), I, 74. .

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) Gia111battistaVico and the Risorgitnento 3 I 3 mind, like that of Carlo Cattaneo, recognized it in his rcvie\V of F cr- rari's study on Vico,13 but many It:aiians in the nineteenth cenmry· failed to sec the conrrn.diction and appealed ,vith the san1c bre::1th to the Vico of De antiquissi111aitalorunt sapientia and to the \lico of the S cie112.anuov«. Since \ 1incenzo Cuoco ,vas the pri1nary divulgator of ,lic.0'5 ideas ou tsid c Na pl es jn th c first decade of the p:tst century it is not surpri s- ing to find frequent references to \iico scattered through his numc.r- o~s ,vritings. In his letters to \'incenzo Russo on the constitution proposed for the Parthcnopcan republic in 1799.,jn his acute analysis of the reasons for the failure of the Neapolitan rev·olntion of that same year, in his articles for the l'\1ilnncseGiorna/e d'ltalia,' in his imaginative Plato11ein ltalin, in his report to 1\1urat on educational reform in the kingdom of Naples.,Cuoco f aithf ull) 7 reflected the n1un)' aspects of Vico 's thinking.14 He 11evcrfailed to interpret the dcvclop ... mcnts and occurrences of his time in \Ticonian ter1ns~ ''-'here Vico hnd ,vritten of the corsi and ricorsi of ~unations, Cuoco focused on one nation, Italy. Thus~ in Cuoco's analysis, the N ea p0Hta11revolu~ cion had failed, because its leaders had ignored \Tico"s dictum that as c ach pc op le develops, it crea tcs its O\vn la ,vs, cu s to1ns, and cultural outlook, all of ,vhich n111st be considered in bringing -a.boutchange. The revolutionists., according to Cuoco, had attempted to graft a French-inspired revolution on the Neapolitan trunk ~nd the result

had been disastrous1 as the people had rejected u political grovvth alien to their historical roots. For Cuoco, Italians had only to look back to their origjns~ In then1 they ,vonld find a source of pr idc" a common past, and tl1e indication of future development. B)7 the tin1e Cuoco died in 18 24,, , 1ico had a]rcudy· acquired so much recognition that Guglie1n10Pepe, ,vriting Cuoco's obituary for the A11tologi'1.,noted that Cuoco's ma.jor contribution to Italian thought had been to 1nake Vic o knu\vn .1 r; ':\'ith the diffusion of Vico,s ideas in l\1ilan, this city., together ,vith Naplest became u center of \ 1iconian srudies. A1nong the first con- verts ,vere the poets Ugo Foscolo and ''incenzo lv1onti. Foscolo's poem, I Scpolc-ri.,,vidcl} 7 read and admired by Italians., is permeated

il C-arlo Cattaneo, i cSur- la St ienza nu ova di \' i co1 i' Polit e cni co, I I: 9 ( September 1839 )t 251-289. Also jn Op ere Jj Giando'JJtenicoRo111agna.ri, Carlo Cattaneoi Giuseppe Ferrari, ed. E. Se.stan(1\1ilan-Naplcs [1958] ), pp. 3 2.9-36oi especially p. 339. 11. On Cuoco .seeE. P. Nocthcri OJJ. cit., pp. 151-166. ]lj Antologiai No. 40 (April-June 1824),, loz-103.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) H ar-vnrdI ... ibrary lJulletili ,vith Viconian jdeas and philosophy. 1'hat burial and honor of the dead characterize an advancing civi]ization i.vas part of ,rico's thc_ory on the stages of hun1an dcvelopn1ent~ Often the in1agcs that Foscolo used ,vcre borro\ved from \ 7ico. Thus poetry~ to the analysis of ·lvhich \Tico h:ad devoted 111anypages., becan1c one 1ncdiuni through ,vhich ''ico,s ideas gained an audience. Appointed professor of elo~

quencc at the U niv-ersit)Tof Pavia 1 l\1onti spoke of , 11-coas one of the glories of Itul)7 in his opening lecture .on 29 Noven1ber 18034 This praise ,-vas tcrnpcred h)r a criticisn1, often levelled at "\Tico,of being an obscure ,,rTiter. .r\1onticompared ,rico's ,vriting to the mountain of Golgonda in India, bristling ,vith rocks, y·et full of diamonds, and he to]d his audience that if Vicots ~"difficultideast full of the n1ost sublin1c philosoph)r and a stranget incredible erudition, ,vere presented

in a 1norc 4 • • [understandable] language, then there ,vould be no n1orc useful book [ than the Scienzr:r.1111ova] ..'' j\1onti continued that 2nyonc ,vho ,vould take the pains to identify aU the ideas that others had borro,ved from "\Tjco vtould undoubtcdl y compi]e a long list and probably shake n1any reputations. 16 Cuoco had .s2idahnost the san1ething ,vhtn he had noted that \ 1ico had planted 1nany seeds that had blossurncd under other names. And 1\1azzini.,,vh o cannot he called an enrh usiastic Viconiani though he knc,v and adrniicd \Tico's ,vork, at least in his youth, ,vrote ju the first issue of La Giovine ltaJin in i\1an:h 183 2 that many of the best 1ninds in Fr~ncc during the restoration had derived their ideas fro1n 17 \Tico. Earlier, in a rcvje" 7 \'Vritten for the November 182 8 issue of the lndicatore genovese on a translation of one of Schlegers ,vorks, 1Vlazzinihad pointed out that a centUf)7 ear]icr \'ico had identified insti n1ti ons, cul cure, and th c · progress of a civiliza ti on as the bonds uniting a pcople.. 18 \Tico's obscurity, alread3r noted by 1'1.onti,led others to attempt to present his ideas in a clearer form and to bring them in line ,vith the Catholic point of vic,v. One of the first to do this shortly after 1815 ,vas Cataldo Jannclli~a n1cn1ber of the lloy·al Librat) 7 at Naplcsi ,,~ho

can1e out ,vjrh Ceuni . 4 • sulla naturn e 11ecessitddella scienza delle

is Vincenzo i\1onti, 't.Del1a necessita den.,eloq uenz3, 'J O pere in edfte e rare ( 1\1:ilan, l 882-)t Hit 5 3-54. Ii Giuseppe i\1azzini, ,ul)elh giovine lt.1.lia/' Scritd editi ed huditi {Imola~ 1907), II, 87. 1~ Iden,.,Scn'tti (In1ola11906)! Jj 1 l 4,

1 cose e de/le storie u1ua11e.fj His n1otivc in ,vriting thjs little ,vork 1nay have heen to establish a claim to the professorship of the science of history \\rhich Ferdinand I \"Vas planning to cstub]ish nt the University of Naples~ J:-inoellidid receive the appointn1cnt but never succeeded in lecturing, for the chair ,vas never ac.:tivated. Despite certain mis- interpretations of \ 1ico's ideas, h1s book ,vas one of the best ,vrittcn nt this ti1nc on the subject and enjoyed popularity and iruitators~ Nun1crous other \Vorks on \'ico appeared in the fir~t half of the century~ but the one ,vhich prohably· \Vas the nlost ,videly· read ,v-as G·iuscppe Ferrari's so1nc,vhat 1nediocre A1e11tedi G. B. l1"ico,,vhich tells us 1norc about Ferrari's 1nind than about \Tico's~ It ,vas ,vritten to introduce the first con1plcte edition of \Tjco)s kno,vn ,vorks, re- leased at .i\1ilanin 183 7. Ferr2ri presented a rather subjective vje,v of Vico and 11tten1ptcd to Jink \Tico to I talo-European intellectual relations from the sixteenth century to the early part of the nineteenth century, so that the essay actu~lly contained very little on \Tico hirn- self or his mind~ Ferrari's great conuibution ,vas to n1akc,rico's ,,Torks available to n gro\ving number of readers ,1tho ,vished to study thcn1. Fron1 England l\1azzini ,vrote to a friend that hnd he access-to the Ferrari cdjtion he \vould prepare an mticlc on \Tiro, 1 'unkno,vn or nlisundcrstood here/' for the Britisb and P'orcig11Review ..20 In his correspondence 11ndarticles l\1azzini often referred to Vico and com~ n1cntcd _on the insights into history and literature chat he opened., but lvlnzzinilived so long abroad~ came into contact ,vith .so n1any other ideas, that ,vhatever he may have learned from \ 1ico n1crgcd ,vith ,vhut he !earned frorn French, Eng]isht and German thinkcrs.21 A genuine understanding of and synlpathy for \ 1ico, n1ingled ,vith probably a dose of national pride, inspired Niccolo To1nmasco, \,rho nevertheless had some serious reservations about many of \'ico's prjn- ciplcs. He could not accept, for one thing, the idea that a people ,vould go through a period of renc\vcd barbarism~ Nor could he follo,v Vico in denying that civilizationspread from people to people, that all languages had a conunon origin, and that natural la,v \,;,.,~as hasicall)Tthe sa1nc. Y ct, despite his rejection of the kernel.of \Ticoni-an

:1g Published at Naples in 18I 7. • Letter to Filippo U goni, 9 Jun~ 1839+ Publjshed in Ranegna conte1npora1u~a.. Rome (Dccc1nbcr 1912. ), p. 41.5. n Borgese and Croce differ on the extent of Vico~s infl ucncc on i\i!a7,Zini. See

Giuseppe BorgeS-O,Storia delfa critica ronurntica in Italia (NapJ.cs1 1905). p. :zl 7 and

Benedetto Croce 1 Bibliografia 'l.Jichlana,II, 617-618.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) Har-vnrdLibrary B11lleti11 thought, he ,vent on to call ''ico a '(daring geniusn ,vhosc moral con- science ,vas Hthc mirror of mora1ity"' and public ''Jibcrty. '1 Of the Sci enzn nu ova he ,vrote that '' af tcr th c books inspired by God there is no book containing 1norc truths."' Unlike 1nany· of his contem po- raries, T ommaseo, hitnse.lfa great stylist nnd literary critic, did not find \ 1ico obscure. The language of the Scienza nuova ,vas Hsplendid" and revealed Vico us a poet \Vho c'fron1 sn1oke created light, from me taph ysical abstractions dre, v pic tores, ,v ho narrated ,v hil e reason~

ing, -and ,vhile rcnsoning painted [jrnagcs] 1 ,vho did not ,valk to the heights of reason, but soared and in a sentence ,vas often tnore lJrrical than others ,vcrc ju odes.,,. :12 The culmination of hyperbolic claims to an early Italian lca.dcrship in hu1nan affalrs can1e in , 7incenzo Giobcrri,s Del pri111ato111orale e ci-vile d egli italiani~,vhich Croce has labelled -anationalist "deliriun1."' It ,vas ,vritten nventy-n.vo years after Gioberti had first read Vico,s essay on the ancient Italians and closed a C)rcle of historical \\'Titing in Italy, going from \ 1i co's De auti quissin 1 a italoruu, sapi e ·n.tiat throng h Cuoco,s Platoue i11ltaliat to Giuseppe Micali"sJ./ltnlia avanti ii do111i11io dei Ro111ani.,and Angelo l\1azzoldi's Delle origi11iitfllicbe e de/hrdif- f u si01 ze del r h1 c ivi I huen to ital iano alr Egitto, rrlln Fen i cia, al/a Gr eci a ea t11ttele nazioniasiaticbe sul A1editerraneo,to 1ncntion only·the most important examples of th is type of literature. Gioherti ~s enthusiasm

for \ 1ico led him to rank Vico ,vith Plato 1 St. Augustine, Dante, Gali- leo, and J..,ci bni tz.23 Not orily· in th c l 1rinuu o, ,v her c the \Ti conian source colors its very· premise, but in his other ,vritings Gioberti alluded to Vico frequently. In a curious co1nparis.on he ,vrotc that "a decrepit ltal)T could still father a fe,v intellects ,vho ,vould be the

glory of a people in full possessionof their po\vcrs. It is enough t t • to nan1e only t\vo - Vico and Bonaparte- the first closed the era of orthodox philosophy, and ... the second is the only· one ,vho can con1pere ,vith Caesar and Alexander_,,.~ 4 Gioberti also used Vico's ideas on language to attack French for being delicate and subtle, rather than profound and acute like Italian.~~ According to Giobcrti, ,c:since

Niccolo Tomn1aseo, uGiambattista Vjco e i1 suo secoloii first app~ared in Stud i .cri ti ci (Venice, 1S 4 3) i-v.·~s republished se\.Teraltimes, and fi na1ly incorporated

jn T 01 nmasc o's St OTia ci'Vilc nella 1~i terat ia ( T urint 18 7:z ) 1 pp. 1- 14:2 L =i. Vin cen:,.o G i obcrd, Deg Ii errori fil oxo fi ci di A. Ro nnini~ letter 1 1 ( N~ plesi- J 845 ) , 1], I J 3.. Jdc1Jt,D.cl prhnato 1uoralee ch;ile degli itaUt1ni(Brussels, 1843), I144. 1 G, B+ Vico1- co e. nostri temp oris smd iorem rationc 1~, lecture gi l"en £or the

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) GitnnbattistaVico and the Risorgi111e11to 3 I 7 all philosophy is based on the complex history of man, ''ico in the philosophy of history gives the first principles of a ne\V science, that is, of metaphysics-,jurisprudence, p.olitics,111ornlity~ aesthetics, in short of all philosoph3r.,~:m Giobcrti condemned those Italian Francophiles ,vho had substituted foreign lead for native gold.21 The best cxrunplc of this ,vas the neglect of \ 1ico in the eighteenth century \vhcn ad~ 1niracion had gone to foreign \VritersJ n1ediocre and inferior to him.2s He ad mired Vico for having kept hin1sclf free f rorn French inffu ences and for havjng thought in the "Italian ,vay·."2 ~ Earlier in the cenmry, in Italy.. -ase]se,vhere, historians had begun to study the A1iddle Ages as an in1portant period in the history of Europe. In l taly one of the first to turn his-attc nti on to this pcrio d ,vas Alessandro l\12nzoni,.not an historian in the conventional sense, hut a n1an of letters deeply con11nitted to history. Inspired by the ,vork of the French historians \Vith ,vhon1 he \Vas f a1niJiar, .lVIanzoni, ,vho ha.d knO\Yll and \vorked ,vith Cuoco as a young man~ turned to a very remote period in the Italian past in his Discorso sopra «Jcuni punti della storin longobardica in ltalia,io ,vritten to supplen1cnt his pla.y, Adel cbi.. lv1anzoni \Vas interested not so n1u ch in political history.. , as in ,vhat may· be called social history~ the relations bcnveen the Lo1nbard conquerors and the Roman or Italian vanquished ,vho ,verc subjugated. From this oppressed group had developed the third csta tc, out of \v hi ch emerged the n1i ddle cl asst or th c ancestors of those ,vho ,vere thinking of the problen1sof Italy in l\1anzonts ti1ncs. In th c second chapter of the Discorso., A1anzoni 1nad e a famous co1n- parison bet\veen Ludovico l\-1uratoriJthe indefatigah]e eighteenth cen-- tury collector of Italian 1nediev2.lsources and annalist of the middle ages and Vico, the generalizer, often ,vrong about the facts, but gran-

openjng of the scho]asdc ycsr at the U nivcrsjty of N aple:s:on 18 October 1708,

Opere 1 pp .. 169-~42 i \ 7• Globertii lntroduzione allo studio dclla filosofia (N~pics, z846),, 1,. 80, 1:z 6- 1-i. 9; and P.rolf gm;unj del prinueto 1nor~le e civil e d egli ita liani ('Geneva, 1847),, pp. 2 56-2.5 7.. This is an in~t~nee of Vi cots ideas bcj ng gi vcn a di ff cr- cnt me,1ni ng, for \' ico ,vas ma king a con1pirison an1ong lang urtgcs in. genera 1 and criticized C,artesfan philosophyt rather th::.n the :French h.ngu::ige {.see Vico, pp.

200-zoJ ) 1 '-Vhile Gioberti reads in Vlco an indictment of French as a language . .ai:iV. Giobcrti, ilJeditazioni filosoficbe inedite (Florence, 1909), p. 35, no. ::oo:.ii. fi Jdeu1,lntroduzio1J.e allo studio delta filosofi«, I, :23. Id en1,I'rol eg 0111e1iJd el ,pri1nata,p.. 156. !!11J d e111,l ntrod uzkn1e all a stud i a dell a fi l oso fi a, I, 46. m Ori gin ally pu blis-hrd in I 8 21 and re~tised in its fin~I for n1 in 184 5. See Alcssa nd ro

~fanzoni, Tutte le opere1 td+ B. C-ag1i(Ron1e [ I 965]), pp. 615-671.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) H ar·vardLibrary Bulletin diosc in his vision of the ,vhole of human history. For J\1anzonithe t\Yo, rather than representing t,vo opposing n1cthods of history~ co111- ple1ncntcd each other and together had laid the f onndn tion for the ,vork of the historjans in A1anzoni,s century. 1\1anzoni's CSS'1l}' ,vas ,vidcly read both in lta1y-and in France nnd did n1uch to stimulate interest in the history· of 1nedicval Italy~ a period of recurring barbarism, if one accepted the \ 1iconian definition., in ,Yhich ,vere to be found the origins of n1odern Italy. To Italian historians desiring to discover historical continuity bct,vecn their o,vn tirncs and 1nedieval Italy~ \'icoJs vie"r of hi~tory" provided u key. '~'h ile this interest in medieval history· had appeared earlier in French <1nd(.;errnan histori- ography1 for Italians \Tico represented a ,vay of looking 2t Italian history ,vhich ,vas uniquely national. 81 Nor on1y did historians and creative ,vrirers honor \Tico, though not nccessarjly accepting l1is ideas on the past, but scientists and po]i- ticians ,vho probably knc,v little about historical interpretations eulo- gized him. Thus ,ve find at the seventh congress of Italian scientists ,vhich n1et at Naples in 1845 ,vith over 2000 1ncmbcrs attending that \ 1ico ,vas singled out for one of the laudator37 speeches on great Italians and that a n1edal ,vas n1intcd in his honor. In 1861; to 1nark the first anniversary of the plebiscite that had annexed southern ] taly to the noith, Antonio Ranieri dedicated a_ statue to \rico in the public gar~ den at Naples, conc]uding his speech ,vith these ,v.ords: "This plebiscite that today ,ve celebrate; this Italy one and indivisible, for ,vhich ,vc have S\vorn and ,ve all s\vcar to spiU our last drop of b]ood, docs it not represent, is it not, perhaps, the suprcn1c realization of the Scienza 11uova? '' a:? ltanieri ,vas obviously carried a\vay by his political eloquence and his Neapolitan pride, a.nd \Vt cannot accept his s,veeping sununation of Italian unity as the realization of the Scienztrnuovn. Nonetheless, in surveying Italian letters and ideas fron1 Cuoco to Spavcnta, one is forced to conclude that '\Tico did indeed play an jn1portant role in at

7 7 least getting Italians to think about IcaliarrhistOI) • \:\ hcthcr they agreed ,vith hi1n and accepted his ideas, like Cuoco or Gioberti; ad-

t-, On nineteenth century Italian historfans see~ B. Croce, Storia della storiagrafia italiani nel secalo deciuionono (3rd rev. ed., Bar~ 1947), 1 irols.

R;! 'co j sco rso rccitato il dl pri Ul o a nnhrers~ do d cl plchisci to d el1'Itali a meridional e d edicandosi la st::i.rna di G. B. \ 1 i co nel gj:1rd in o pub bl ico di Na po] i,n Opere di Antonio Ranieri (l\1ilanjo:i864)i IIIi 101.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969) Gim11battistaVico n11dtbe Risorgi111ento mired, but did not follo,v hin1ju aH his interprctarjons~ like To111n1nsco., Rotnagnosi~ Cattaneo~ Rosn1inii Ila1bo, and l\1azzini; or ,v-crc crjti cal of hin1 like Colangelo, bishop of C-a.stel]a.1nsra.;stiH \Tico forced rnen to think about and to interpret the Italian past in tcrn1~ of their O\Vn tirncs. 1\1oreover~he represented, espccia1ly·after recognition of his ,vork outside lta]y, a source of national pride.,u genius ,vho had \vritten at a time ,vhen Italy's political and cconon1ic forruncs ,vere at a ]ov{ point, I &Iisvery ,v or k, ,v hil e not nationalistic~ could he q narricd to provide hist ori ca1 f onn d ati o ns for , v hat might oth cr,v i sc b c di s1nissed as patriotjc vjsions.. Cantt\ the Catholic hisrorjan, ,vrote that the field of history·in Italy ,vas led by \Tico, uauthor of hooks in ,vhich rnorc

js read than is ,vrittcn, but ,vhich e,Tcry·one discusses ,vith itdn1ir~tion 1

f c, v-,vi th kn o \V 1ed gc. H Ccr ta inly this \Vas truer af tcr 1 8 48 than be- fore, and by the 1 860,s homage to Vico had become 1Jro f or1na. Hegel and idealism had replaced \ 7jco's Scieuza 1u10-vn. The prob]en1s of nation-building oversl1adov.redthe fab]cs of the De a11tiq11issi111i1italo- ru11zsnpientia and its jn:flucntial scque]t G·ioberti~s l 1ri111ato1,1ornle c civile .. The ricorsohnd occurred and the past meant Jitr]c to men faced ,vith a reality· that had Jitdc glorious in it ..

Vt1i denc r Library has pro ha b1y the rich e.i;t co11ecti u n of sources to be found j n the United States ,1n the history of th c I talfo.n Ri sorgitn cnto, l 8 15-187 1. Its nu<.:]eus"\Vas fonnc

up-to-date ,vith current publ.ications1 the Gay- rth1.tcria1s provide nn unlnatched opportun.i ry· for the student of the I tali an Risorgi men to. This \l 7id en er col- lection ,vas utilized in the I"csearch for this paper and a grent deal n1orc ,,Tas 11nenrthed in the stacks of "\Videner Library than time -and space a1lo,vcd to be included. The vadety and concentration of sources and contemporary ,vorks are unrivalled even in It:dy., ,1rhere data are available but dispersed an1ong nurncrous libraries throughout the country. Cesare Cantu, Storia degli italiani (ind ed., Turin., 1858)r III, 808.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XVII, Number 3 (July 1969)