Vico's Cultural History: The Production and Transmission of Ideas in Naples, 1685-1750

354 Pages·1997·35.892 MB·English

by  Harold Samuel Stone

BRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 73
VICO'S CULTURAL HISTORY
The Production and Transmission of Ideas in Napks
1685-1750
BY
HAROLD SAMUEL STONE
''68*"
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KÖLN
1997
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stone, Harold Samuel, 1949-
Vico's cultural history : the production and transmission of ideas
in Naples, 1685-1750 / by Harold Samuel Stone.
p. cm. — (Brill's studies in intellectual history, ISSN
0920-8607 ; v. 73)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004106502 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Naples (Kingdom)—Intellectual life. 2. Vico, Giambattista,
1668-1744—Influence. 3. Books and reading—Italy—Naples
(Kingdom)—History. 4. Intellectuals—Italy—Naples (Kingdom)-
-Attitudes. I. Title. II. Series.
DG848.15.S76 1997
945\7307—dc20 96-30806
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Stone, Harold Samuel:
Vico's cultural history : the production and transmission of
ideas in Naples, 1685 - 1750 / by Harold Samuel Stone. - Leiden
; New York ; Köln : Brill, 1997
(Brill's studies in intellectual history ; Vol. 73)
ISBN 90-04-10650-2
NE:GT
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 10650 2
© Copyright 1997 by E.J. Brill, Uiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by E.J. Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Damm MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
PRINTED EN THE NETHERLANDS
To my parents Everett and Ellen Stone
and my three sisters Miki Noltimier,
Barbara Beminghausen and Sandy Stone

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
1. Printing and Reading in Maples in the Late 1680s 1
The Visit of Mabillon and Burnet 1
How Naples' Intellectual Community Reacted to the
1688 Earthquake 8
Neapolitan Printing of the Late 1680s 12
The Emblemmatic Careers of Niccolo Giannetasio
and Francesco Solimena 20
2. The Index and the Atomists 24
The Inquisitorial Investigation of the Atomists 28
A Legal Debate in Manuscript 34
3. The War Between the Ancients and the Moderns:
The Neapolitan Front 46
The Moderns Counter-attack in Manuscript 54
The Moderns Counter-attack in Print 64
4. New Publications in the 1690s: Travel Literature and
Celebratory Verse 72
Celebratory Verse Representing Baroque Heroism 83
The Arrival of Medina Coeli 89
5. The Academy Founded by Medina Coeli 93
6. The End of Spanish Hapsburg Rule in Naples 110
The Conspiracy against Medina Coeli 113
Printed and Manuscript Accounts of the Conspiracy .. 116
The New Bourbon Regime 117
Philip and the Investiture 122
New Books and Make-Believe Academies 123
viii CONTENTS
7. The Austrian Invasion of Naples of 1707 132
The Neapolitan Transition from Bourbon
to Hapsburg 134
The Austrian Invasion 137
The Consequences of the Conquest: The Cardinal and
the Cyclops 139
The Controversy Concerning Ecclesiastical Revenues ... 144
Politicizing the Arts? 152
8. An Italian Perspective on Neapolitan Publishing and Thinking 156
The Ethic of Theological Controversy 160
Vico's De nostn temporis 166
Doria's La vita civile (The Public Sphere) 168
More Morality: The Exemplary Death of Shaftesbury
in Naples 174
9. Vico's First Published Scholarly Worh and his Friendship
with Dona 180
An Excursus on Making and Knowing 180
De antiquissima in Context 184
Vico's anti-Cartesianism 186
Making and Knowing for Vico and Doria 189
Doria and the Controversy with Porzio 192
10. Punting for the Different Reading Publics in Naples 196
Gravina's Reform of Poetry and of Law 200
Giannone and the Issue of Neapolitan Reform 207
Naples' Ongoing Encounter with Descartes 214
Grimaldi attempts to Republish his Benedetti Work ... 216
Doria's Flight from Descartes 218
The Christian Lucretius and the Pagan One 221
Popular History and Almanacs 223
Time of Troubles 227
11. The New Style of Vinci and the New Science of Vico 230
Vico's Scienza nuova and the System of Patronage
in Naples 237
Vico's Science 242
Science and Orthodoxy 243
Vico's Method 248