VISIBILITY AND HISTORY GIORGIO AGAMBEN AND THE EXEMPLARY Steven D. DeCaroli In the third chapter of The Coming Com- dresses this same process by referencing munity, Giorgio Agamben turns his attention Hegel’s discussion of sense-certainty in the to the “example” insofar as it stands in rela- opening chapter of the Phenomenology of tion to “the antinomy of the individual and Spirit. Here, sense-certainty’s immediate en- the universal” that has its origin in language.1 counter with being is compromised the mo- The familiar antinomy to which Agamben ment consciousness attempts to speak this refers arises when, in the act of calling some- relation, that is to say, the moment language thing a tree, or a plow, or bitter, the empirical attempts to preserve sense-certainty’s imme- singularity of that thing is transformed into a diate relation to being it inevitably mediates member of a class defined by a property held that relation.3 Raw, unclassified being which in common. Language is forever positing the is the object of sense-certainty is, therefore, universal in place of, or as a substitute for, abruptly transformed into the ideal being the singular that it wishes quite literally to proper to language. keep in mind. “The word ‘tree’,” Agamben For Agamben, in Language and Death,in writes, “designates all trees indifferently, in- The Coming Community, and indeed, in his sofar as it posits the proper universal signifi- work as a whole, it is this moment of trans- cance in place of singular, ineffable trees,”2 formation from ineffable object to object of and in so doing transforms singularities into thought, and a host of other similarly struc- members of a class. Language is perpetually tured transformations, that are of interest. caught between the universality of its gener- More specifically, it is those instances where alized expressions and the empirical singu- a transition gets hung-up, where it lingers on larity of those denominated entities which, a threshold, where it hesitates and thereby re- while they are the ultimate ground of this veals itself as purely transitional, that en- generalization, are always somehow inade- gages Agamben’s attention. For it is in those quately represented by it. case where an object is neither thoroughly The passage of an entity into language inaccessible to cognition (and inaccessibil- proceeds by way of a conceptualization ity takes various forms, e.g., the noumenal, which is familiar to philosophy, for in its being-in-itself, chaos, etc.), nor thoroughly most elementary form judgment (and here I appropriated by cognition through its ideal- am thinking of determinative judgment ization in language, that Agamben identifies rather than reflective judgment) is the capac- moments where the singular reveals itself in ity to grasp the particular as an instance of a its singularity, that is to say, as something general rule—a relation Kant repeatedly de- which is essentially un-common. For scribes as analogous to the application of a Agamben, it is in these hesitant moments of law. But the general categories which sub- transition that unclaimed figures appear— sume particular objects remain fundamen- the refugee, the werewolf, the sacred, the tally at odds with the irreducible singularity camp, Bartleby, and most germane to this of the particular instances which language, discussion, the exemplary. In each case, es- and by extension thought, attempts to grasp. sence is not a forgone conclusion. But de- In Language and Death, Agamben ad- spite the lack of an essential commonality,

PHILOSOPHY TODAY SPEP SUPPLEMENT 2001 9 what gathers each of these cases together is ally “shows alongside” itself. Or equally precisely their enduring potential to be oth- evocative, the German, Bei-spiel, literally erwise: to be wolf, to be stateless, to be sa- that which “plays alongside” itself.5 The ex- cred, to be one who does not write. ample provides its own criteria of inclusion When Agamben turns to demons, or to ha- and, therefore, remains ambiguously along- los, to limbo, or to wolf-men, it is to suggest side the class of which it is most representa- that when the human has lost its qualities it is most capable of forming a community which tive. In both of these etymological deriva- refuses any criteria of belonging. The task of tions the example is presented as the form of the many brief, almost aphoristic chapters in a singular object that remains neither fully The Coming Community is to begin to con- included in a class nor full excluded from it. ceive of such a community, a community That is to say, it remains transitional. that lays no claim to identity, a community in If the pursuit of philosophy is tradition- which singularities, not bound by a common ally for the a priori, and if the debates sur- property, communicate nonetheless. And it rounding the a priori have largely been those is in pursuit of such singularities, that waged between nominalist and realist, not Agamben speaks of the example. over the necessity of the principles demon- The example remains distinct, one singu- strated, but over whether or not the catego- larity among others, while at the same time it ries that describe this necessity exist in real- stands in for them as a whole. The example, ity or in name alone, then the example stands Agamben maintains, is one single case, but somewhat outside of this debate, not because yet is called upon to stand in for a class of it is not real or because it is not known by a similar objects. In other words, the example name, but because it is not bound by the sta- is at one and the same time a member of a set bility of a category—whether linguistic or and the defining criteria of that set. He actual. To say that Muhammad is a member writes, of a class called prophet, or to say that the Farnese Hercules is a member of a class One concept that escapes the antinomy of called beauty, may be true in a quite limited the universal and the particular has long sense, but it certainly does not explain the been familiar to us: the example. In any potency these unique figures possess in their context where it exerts its force, the exam- role as examples. Thus, while Agamben’s ple is characterized by the fact that it holds discussion of the example is framed linguis- for all cases of the same type, and, at the tically, even grammatically—illustrating same time, it is included among these. It is how the example, in its singularity, epito- one singularity among others, which, how- mizes a conceptual category that it exceeds, ever, stands for each of them and serves for and to which it does not quite belong—I will all....Neither particular nor universal, the consider the example in a somewhat differ- example is a singular object that presents ent context. Rather than attend to the linguis- tic appearance of the exemplary, I will con- itself as such, that shows its singularity.4 cern myself with its historical manifestations and, in particular, I will con- The example, it seems, possesses a capacity sider the normative capacity that deeply to indicate itself, to refer to itself, not characterizes the historical appearance of through a conceptualization of its properties, exemplary objects, individuals and events. but, as Agamben suggests, through an in- Whereas philosophy has traditionally structive showing. Thus, we are directed to placed an emphasis on necessity, pursuing the Greek word, para-digma, through which the demonstrative validity of principles not the example comes to mean that which liter- contingent on time or place, seeking truths

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 10 unencumbered by historical ties, the exam- for us in history, will always accomplish ple, by contrast, is fully historical. Its ap- more than any universal precepts we have pearance in the form of an object, or an received from priests or philosophers.7 event, or a person—the Apollo Belvedere, for instance, or the French Revolution, or a My point here is certainly not to suggest that Messiah—is both historical and irreducibly Kant has abandoned his commitment to the singular, yet each case very often assumes a legislative function of reason or to the uni- powerful normative capacity. The question versal validity of the faculties, but rather, to for much theoretical work, particularly in the suggest that there are moments even in Kant, areas of aesthetics and politics, but also for particularly with respect to aesthetic judg- the philosophical historians of the eigh- teenth century and certainly in the more ment, where the work of abstract thought speculative work of religious traditions— must give way to something more historical. Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ co- And because even in Kant the historical ap- mes to mind—has been not only to recognize pearance of an example is recognized as in- the normative potency of examples, but to strumental in acquiring a sense of taste, that determine how one ought to respond to them. is to say, in acquiring the ability to make Unlike moral rules or normative principles, sound judgments even when no general rule what the example promises cannot be ade- is at our disposal, it is worth considering the quately legislated and, therefore, one’s re- implications of this concept in more detail. sponse to the exemplary cannot be a simple Consequently, I would like to take up this form of rational obedience—a mere adher- challenge by augmenting the work of ence to reasonable principles. Debates in Giorgio Agamben whose explicit writings eighteenth-century aesthetics, for instance, on the exemplary, while limited and inter- are brimming with such considerations, par- mittent, are both evocative in their own right, ticularly with respect to the cultivation of and suggestive of a wider inquiry that, to the good taste. If, for instance, one teaches pu- best of my knowledge, has not yet been real- pils how to paint by showing them master- ized—namely, a genealogy of the exemplary works, as opposed to demanding that they in Western thought. While such a project re- follow rigid rules or instructions, what pre- mains to be written, and will most certainly vents them from simply becoming proficient not be fully expounded here, in what follows copyists? Or to borrow a theme from Kant’s I would nevertheless like to propose a man- Critique of Judgment, taste cannot be legis- ner in which this project might begin. In par- lated for it is never simply a matter of follow- ticular, I would like to suggest that there ex- ing a set of pre-given rules. As Kant remarks ists an abiding connection between in the concluding paragraph of §32, it is for Agamben’s discussions of the exemplary as precisely this reason that “among all our that which “shows its singularity” and in- abilities and talents, taste is . . . what stands stances in both eighteenth-century aesthetics most in need of examples.”6 and Renaissance humanism where similar If, as Kant claims, taste functions not ac- statements are made regarding the exem- cording to rules, but by way of examples, plary, not only as a linguistic category, but as then, perhaps it is not surprising that, in the a form of pedagogy, that is, a mode of com- same thirty-second section of the Critique of ing to knowledge, which more often than Judgment, Kant also speaks of religion: not, is employed for the sake of gathering a community: be it in religious traditions or In religion, everyone must surely find the aesthetic education. rule for conduct within himself...yeteven In what follows, I will pay particular at- here an example of virtue and holiness, set tention to how, in both aesthetic and histori-

VISIBILITY AND HISTORY 11 cal discourse, visibility, or rather a “show- a meaningful arrangement and should not be ing,” is closely associated with exemplarity. misconstrued as being synonymous with the While this may be evident with respect to course of events itself. History in this sense, aesthetics, where beauty is by and large con- in the sense historia attests to, is on the order ceived of in terms of its physical appearance, of a systematic science that extends beyond and where in Kant we are told that the work the mere reportage of facts. The system is of the genius “must be exemplary,” 8 it is less given precedent over the individual facts be- clear how history, which studies a past hid- cause, so it is argued, the only way to under- den by time, can also be grounded in the stand the facts is through history as method.12 exemplarity of the visible. By tracing its us- Winckelmann writes, age back through eighteenth-century aes- thetics, particularly in the art historical work The History of Ancient Art which I have of Johann Winckelmann, and ultimately to undertaken to write is not a mere chronicle the Renaissance writings of Guarino da Ve- of epochs, and of the changes that occurred rona, I intend to show that the meaning of the within them. I use the term History Greek concept of historia offers a way not [Geschichte] in the more extended signifi- only of reconciling history with visibility, cation that it has in the Greek language; it is but of contributing something to Agamben’s my intention to present a system [Lehr- philosophical project. gebäudes].13

* * * * * For the Greeks, historia connoted a man- ner of research, an investigation, or an in- With the appearance of his muti-volumed quiry, and for Herodotus, the first to develop History of Ancient Art,9 published in Rome the concept, historia was equally opposed to in 1764, Johann Winckelmann’s notoriety as the mere factual recording of current events an authority on classical art rapidly extended as it was to the effusive narrations of legends throughout Europe where he was regularly and myths. It was, in all likelihood, to credited with being not only a founding fig- Herodotus that Winckelmann turned for his ure of German neo-classicism, but the archi- conception of historia, due certainly to the tect of a new method for understanding the fact that Herodotus was the first to use the art historical past.10 The opening lines of the term, but also, and more importantly, be- History speak to Winckelmann’s intention of cause unlike his slightly younger contempo- erecting a new historical method opposed to rary, Thucydides, Herodotus never doubted the practices of traditional historians and, that events drawn from the distant past could not uncharacteristically, the conceptual be of appreciable value to the present. The touchstone of this new method is retrieved facts of the past, however, do not offer them- from the classical past. What Winckelmann selves to the historian freely nor do they ex- is expressly averse to are mere chronological pose their meaning openly, rather their legi- synopsizes of events such as those biograph- bility is attained only through careful ical inventories of artist’s lives that pack the arrangement. In its classical sense, historia manuscripts of traditional historians of art signifies precisely the task of constructing a and say nothing about the stylistic matura- system for guiding the arrangement of facts tion of the art work itself. What is missing and it is in this capacity that historia repre- from such works, and what Winckelmann sents a manner of knowing. The comprehen- strives to recuperate, is precisely that which sion of facts and their capacity to be eviden- is expressed in the Greek concept of tiary transpires only in and through a system, historia,11 that is, the systemic quality of his- that is to say, through what Winckelmann tory which constructs from the factual record speaks of as a Lehrgebäude.

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 12 Etymologically, historia is a derivative of refer to the seats flanking a theatrical stage or histèmi meaning to make a stand, to set up, or the bleachers of a circus. I raise this ancillary to institute.14 As such, Lehrgebäude, which meaning of historia to emphasis the affinity Winckelmann likens to historia, ought to be history has with the empirical act of look- understood in its instrumentality, for ing—something that Winckelmann’s writ- Winckelmann’s historiography is no trans- ings are frequently concerned with. During parent medium for the conveyance of the the Renaissance and particularly within the past, nor is it a passive repository for facts, humanist tradition, in the works of scholars rather it is an artificial system set up by the as well versed in classical Greek as Guarino, historian to arrange facts in such as manner historia was conceived as a mode of know- as to siphon knowledge from the past which ing grounded in visibility. This is important would otherwise remain concealed. In this for two reasons. First, because Winckel- respect, historia is not to be understood as mann’s own treatment of history, which em- the bare discovery of knowledge, as if the ulates the antiquarian penchant for non-liter- historian is occupied with little more than ary evidence, will hinge on the visibility of finding and transmitting, but should be un- classical artifacts and the perceptibility of derstood as the faithful extraction of knowl- their subtle details, but also because the visi- edge from the past as it is filtered and inter- bility historia invokes seems so antithetical preted through the historian’s system to the project of history itself, i.e., the study (Lehrgebäude). This, at least, is the way his- of epochs which have long since dissolved toriography had been conceptualized by into the shadows of antiquity. It is reasonable those who align the historian with the philos- to surmise that the link between visibility opher. History, like philosophy, actively and history is, even in the earliest discus- crafts techniques for attaining knowledge, sions of historia, a consequence of the histo- and it is in this sense that Winckelmann’s re- rian’s empirical encounter with objects— turn to the original meaning of historia, principally with monuments and architec- which places him squarely within the tradi- tural ruins—which literally “show their tion of Renaissance humanism, ought to be age.” It is this tradition of exploring the past seen not only as a challenge to traditional by looking at it, rather than, say, by opening history, but as a critical rejoinder to philoso- Pliny and reading what he has to say about phy as well.15 his time, that Winckelmann is aligning him- But historia has yet another etymological self with. This, in turn, is what makes affiliation. Guarino da , a humanist systematicity, the Lehrgebäude, so essential. pedagogue and Greek scholar of the early The visual, in the form of those non-literary Renaissance, alludes to this etymology in his sources favored by antiquarians, is not by na- Epistolario.16 After insisting that, “History . . ture chronological and so in order to under- . is a description of those things and times stand it as such one must devise a system in which our age sees or could see [Historia... which visibility folds into narration. The earum rerum et temporum descriptio est, merging of visible details with chronology is quae nostra vidit aut videre potuit aetas],” ultimately what Winckelmann pursues un- Guarino rehearses the etymology of der the concept of style.18 historia:“[istoreivn< «videre» Graeci dicunt The spectaculum, the “seats of a theater” et i;storivan «spectaculum».”17 Here Guarino that lay in the etymological background of directly associates historia with visibility. In historia, calls particular attention to the role the Latin, videre, a declension of video, the theater played in Greek life. The theater, means simply to see or to observe, while echoing the classical meaning of historia, spectaculum invokes the more public visibil- was itself a way of knowing. It was an archi- ity of a show or a spectacle, but can equally tecture designed for learning and for teach-

VISIBILITY AND HISTORY 13 ing those lessons that do not proceed by ra- understood properly, it is argued, they are in- tional arguments—’s pidea finds its separable from such narratives. origin here—that is to say, those lessons one In its conventional usage the example is learns by example. The theatrical stage was a that which clarifies a point; it is that to which site for the display of the exemplary. It was a one points after a theory has been worked out place for making things, typically the didac- in abstraction. Consequently, the example does not traditionally yield knowledge, it tic narratives of mythology, visible to the 22 members of the audience whose role as spec- presupposes it. In both Guarino and tators was inseparable with their role as pu- Winckelmann the case is somewhat differ- pils. In Europe of the eighteenth century, ent, for in their writings the example exceeds spectatorship took on a different, but no less its role as a mere case-in-point, such that when one encounters the exemplary it is as important form, when affluent Europeans testimony, not as clarification. Through the embarked on the Grand Tour. An activity example one learns something, one comes to that was considered of paramount impor- knowledge in the manner of the witness, not tance to a genteel education, the Grand Tour through the abstractions of reason but held out the promise that history, in the form through an empirical encounter. As Ernesto of ancient artifacts and Roman buildings, Grassi writes regarding Guarino’s doctrina could be directly experienced as a visible exemplorum, presence.19 “It was not, after all, the view of Greece as embodying absolute values that Guarino takes an example to mean a “testi- was new about Winckelmann’s work,” M. mony” in the exact meaning of the word: Kay Flavell rightly points out, rather we learn something not through abstract Winckelmann’s originality consisted in “his rational theory, but by being the “witness” intoxicating and novel demonstration that to an “event.” Examples are not isolated the past could be brought into a new and vi- and abstract “images” of “ideas,” but in- brant relation with the present through the sights into the successful or failed response shock of personal encounter with its art.”20 to an appeal which demands to be fulfilled Winckelmann’s own project, which had so “here” and “now.” As such, the example is profound an impact on those European trav- the contemplatio not of an abstract but of a elers who anticipated encountering in Rome concrete drama whose action takes place in both beauty and history, was therefore at history....Itisa‘putting-in-front-of-our- least tacitly conceived of in terms of eyes,’a recourse to historical ‘evidence,’an historia’s alliance with vision and with the ‘indication.’23 didactic potency of visible examples. While The tension within epistemology between Guarino, speaking in the early fifteenth cen- the singular and the universal has consider- tury, contends that “historical accounts sur- able repercussions for theories of education pass any image or statue because they give us with which both Guarino and Winckelmann spiritual and moral examples [imaginem were poignantly concerned. Imitation, as a statuamque praecellumt . . . illi vero animos practical response to encounters with the ex- etiam effingunt et mores],” because “their emplary, immediately raises the question of voices ring over all the lands and the seas and how one can be expected to acquire from the 21 they are found everywhere,” Winckelmann singular example the components of truth argues that these very artifacts—the images without abolishing the singularity of the ex- and statues Guarino speaks of—when con- ample by transforming it into a general con- ceived in terms of history are just as exem- cept—precisely the issue Agamben attempts plary as historical narratives because when to come to terms with by focusing his atten-

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 14 tion on the transitional moments wherein lize concepts, it is a non-conceptual peda- singularity gives way to general concepts. gogical model that must be adopted; a model What is at issue in both Guarino and that, at least in Winckelmann, emerges from Winckelmann is an educational model that a distinctly historical understanding of the functions by means of indications and exam- didactic potency of examples. Thus, what ples, not rational proofs. As Grassi notes, Grassi speaks of as history’s capacity to “Since the demands to which we must re- “put-in-front-of-our-eyes” is not dissimilar spond are always new, imitation cannot be 24 from Winckelmann’s own injunction ad- considered a repetition,” because such an understanding of imitatio would obligate a dressed those who wish to know the beauty contradictory repetition of the singular. of the classical past, which he fluently ex- Rather, as both Guarino and Winckelmann presses in his succinct injunction, “go hither suggest, every example must remain singu- and look.” Here, borrowing from the Renais- lar even as it demands, in its normative ca- sance tradition of which Guarino is a part, pacity as an example, both admiratio and and far from being a mere case-in-point, the imitatio. And when considering aesthetic ed- examplum, in its singularity, comes first. ucation which, following Kant, does not uti-

ENDNOTES

1. Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community, trans. G. Henry Lodge, 4 vols. (New York: Frederick Ungar Michael Hardt (Minneapolis: University of Minne- Publishers, 1968). sota Press, 1993), p. 8. 10. The authoritative biography of Winckelmann re- 2. Ibid. mains Carl Justi’s three volume work: Winckelmann 3. Giorgio Agamben, Language and Death, trans. Ka- und seine Zeitgennossen (Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, ren E. Pinkus with Michael Hardt (Minneapolis: Uni- 1923), but there are numerous other accounts of versity of Minnesota Press, 1991), pp. 14–15. Winckelmann’s life. See, for instance, Wolfgang 4. Agamben, The Coming Community, p. 9. Emphasis Leppmann, Winckelmann (New York: Alfred A. added. Knopf, 1970). For brief, though valuable summaries 5. Ibid. of Winckelmann’s life see Elfriede Heyer and Roger 6. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. Werner C. Norton’s introduction to their relatively recent S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1987), p. English translation of the Gedanken, Reflections on 147. the Imitation of the Greek Works in Painting and 7. Ibid., p. 146. Translation slightly altered. Sculpture (La Salle: Open Court, 1987); and even the 8. Ibid., p. 175. chapter on Winckelmann in Walter Pater, The Re- 9. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst naissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (London: des Alterthums, 4 vols. (Rome, 1764). The Macmillan, 1910). For a sustained study of the cir- Geschichte was translated into French in 1766 and cumstance surrounding Winckelmann’s untimely into Italian in 1779. It was, however, not fully trans- death and the long term public reaction to his murder lated into English until 1880, though the section on see Lionel Gossman, “Death in Trieste,” Journal of Greek art was available from 1849. I will be citing European Studies 22, no. 87 (1992): pp. 207–40. from a more recent German edition, Johann Joachim 11. The Greek ivstoriva is defined by Liddel and Scott as Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums “a learning by inquiry” or “the knowledge so ob- (Wien: Phaidon Verlag, 1934). I will also be referenc- tained.” The emphasis is placed on the production of ing the most recent English translation, Johann knowledge and not on mere chronicling. See H. G. Joachim Winckelmann, History of Ancient Art, trans. Liddell and Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English

VISIBILITY AND HISTORY 15 Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. ton: Princeton University Press, 1970); and Edmund 385. B. Fryde, Humanism and Renaissance Historiogra- 12. For more on Winckelmann’s use of the Greek under- phy (London: The Hambledon Press, 1983). More standing of historia, see Marlite Halbertsma, “Johann specifically, and with respect to Renaissance aesthet- Joachim Winckelmann and the History of Art as De- ics, a useful avenue of further study might address the construction,” Kunst and museumjournaal 3, no. 2 writings of Leon Battista Alberti and in particular his (1991): 24. Halbertsma writes: “In ancient times writings on painting. See Leon Battista Alberti, On ‘Historia’ eventually took on the additional meaning Painting and on Sculpture, trans. Cecil Grayson of the story form used to relate events rather than the (London: Phaidon Press, 1972). For a study of this course of events. It was not until the last quarter of the topic see Kristine Patz, “Zum Begriff der ‘Historia’ in eighteenth century, at least in German, that the term L. B. Albertis De Pictura,” Zeitschrift für ‘Geschichte’ for history as a collection of events and Kunstgeschichte 49, no. 3 (1986): 269–87. ‘Historie’ for the account thereof became synony- 16. Guarino da Verona traveled to Constantinople in mous, and ‘Geschichte’ supplanted the word 1388 to study Greek under Manuel Chrysoloars, the ‘Historie’” (p. 24). Constantinople born scholar who is considered the 13. Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums, first to transplant Greek literature into Italy. He return p. 9; History of Ancient Art, p. 3. to Italy where he taught Greek, authored Greek and 14. For a discussion of this etymological derivation see Latin grammars, translated sections of and Marlite Halbertsma, “Johann Joachim Winckelmann , and helped to establish the texts of, among and the History of Art as Deconstruction,” Kunst and others, Livy and Pliny. For a fascinating discussion of museumjournaal 3, no. 2 (1991): 24. It should also be Guarino da Verona on the significance of examples, a kept in mind that before the end of the eighteenth cen- discussion from which I have borrowed much, see tury the word Geschichte signified only a process and Ernesto Grassi, Renaissance Humanism: Studies in did not also indicate a collective noun. In Philosophy and Poetics, trans. Walter F. Veit Winckelmann’s Geschichte der Kunst des (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renais- Alterthums, for instance, Geschichte had not yet ac- sance Studies, 1988), pp. 50–57. quired the sense of a unified fact, i.e., history as such. 17. Guarino da Verona, Epistolario, ed. R. Sabbadini, 3 In a useful footnote, Charles Bambach explains that vols. (Venezia, 1915–1919), Ep. 796 (II, 460), 73. “By 1800, the word no longer stood for a specific his- Cited in Ernesto Grassi, Renaissance Humanism: torical process...butbegan to be used apart from its Studies in Philosophy and Poetics, trans. Walter F. genitivus objectivus as the history of the specific Veit (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early theme that it discusses. For the first time, die Renaissance Studies, 1988), p. 54. Translation is my Geschichte is used in an abstract sense as a collective own. The full passage, in which Guarino contrasts an- singular: history as such. Linguistically, Geschichte nals with histories, reads: “Ceterum quoniam no longer refers merely to ‘the history of x’ but to the historiae annaliumque orta mentio est, non erit absur- process of all histories unified together as ‘the’ his- dum utriusque vim aperire, «ut intelligatur quid sit id tory of, for instance, the world (Weltgeschichte). de quo disputetur». Historia, ut plerisque placet With this shift in meaning, human reality begins to be auctoribus, earum rerum et temporum descriptio est, grasped as part of an all-encompassing narrative pro- quae nostra vidit aut videre potuit aetas; quod et cess or pageant of teleological development.” His- vocabulum eiusque derivatio monatrat, siquidem. tory, in other words, becomes a thing which is also a Istoreivn «videre» Graeci dicunt et ivstorivan process. See Charles R. Bambach, Heidegger, «spectaculum». Annales autem eorum annorum Dilthey, and the Crisis of Historicism (Ithaca: Cornell expositio qui a nostra remoti sunt aetate; licet alii University Press, 1995), p. 42. aliter et sentiant et proferant et usus haec ipsa 15. For more on the significance of historiography in the confundat.” Renaissance see Nancy S. Struever, The Language of 18. On 28 January 1787, while in Rome viewing classical History in the Renaissance: Rhetorical and Histori- artifacts first hand, Goethe wrote with respect to cal Consciousness in Florentine Humanism (Prince- Winckelmann’s art historical project, “everyone who

PHILOSOPHY TODAY 16 takes the matter seriously can see that no judgment is Freunde, ed. Karl Wilhelm Dassdorf, 2 vols. possible in this field unless it can be developed histor- (Dresden, 1777–1780). ically.” See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian 20. M. Kay Flavell, “Winckelmann and the German En- Journey, trans. Robert R. Heitner (New York: lightenment: On the Recovery and Uses of the Past,” Suhrkamp Publishers, 1989), p. 136. p. 89. 19. On 13 December 1786, while on his own Grand Tour 21. Guarino da Verona, Epistolario, ed. R. Sabbadini, 3 of Rome, Goethe had the unexpected opportunity to vols. (Venezia, 1915–1919), Ep. 706 (II, 310), 52. browse through letters Winckelmann wrote during Cited in Grassi, Renaissance Humanism: Studies in his residency in Italy. Goethe singles out a passage Philosophy and Poetics, pp. 54-55. Here the entire from a letter Winckelmann wrote to Johann Michael passage reads: “Postremo si gloriae ut sic dicam Franke, the librarian who had worked with instrumenta conferre libet, annales quamlibet Winckelmann in Dresden, which Goethe quotes in imaginem statuamque praecellunt; hae siquidem cor- his diary. Winckelmann’s remarks read: “One has to pora duntaxat, illi vero animos etiam effingunt et mo- be somewhat phlegmatic about looking for all the res; hae mutae, illi voce sua terras implent et maria; things in Rome, or else one is taken to be a French- hae paucis item in locis figi possunt, illi per man. Rome, I believe, is all the world’s university, and I too have been tested and purified.” Goethe con- universum terrarum orbem facile pervagantur tinues with a comment on the passage, “These words disseminarique valent.” correspond exactly with my way of investigating 22. Ernesto Grassi, Renaissance Humanism: Studies in things here, and certainly, before coming to Rome, no Philosophy and Poetics, p. 53. one has a notion of how he will be schooled here. He 23. Ibid. Grassi quotes Guarino da Verona on the notion must be, so to speak, reborn, and will look back on his that examples are testimonies, “illis vero testibus et former ideas as though they were children’s shoes.” exemplis . . . instruatur et corroboretur.” See da Vero- See Goethe, Italian Journey, p. 122. Winckelmann’s na, Epistolario, Ep. 676 (I, 261), 44. Italian letters are collected in Johann Joachim 24. Grassi, Renaissance Humanism: Studies in Philoso- Winckelmann, Winckelmanns Briefe an seine phy and Poetics, p. 54.

Goucher College, Baltimore, 21204

VISIBILITY AND HISTORY 17