Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on the legacy of Giambattista Vico in post-revolutionary Italian and European culture, this book investigates unexplored reading practices and the circulation of Vico-related themes in early nineteenth-century culture, both in Italy and Europe, delineating an overlooked strain of the European philosophical tradition.
Trade Review'Piperno’s study is extremely wide-ranging; yet, along the many routes explored (from the Homeric question and the rise of modern philology, to political and religious appropriations), the objective is always clear: one must rethink the plethora of discourses shaping the reception of an author. […] As we reach the conclusion, Piperno brings together this variety of responses within a steady methodological framework, making a fundamental contribution to today’s scholarship.'
Daniela Cerimonia,
Modern Language ReviewTable of ContentsNote on conventions
Introduction
i. Vico’s legacy, Vico’s ‘heir’
ii. Diffraction
iii. The structure of this work
1. Forms of Italian modernity
i. The power of the origins
ii. Belief
2. Principium
i. The pride, the origins and the destiny of the nation
ii. Epics, poetry, creation and nation-building
3. Fictio
i. Redefining fiction
ii. Translating and mediating the ancient world
iii. Was Vico Classicist or Romantic?
iv. Fiction and/as belief
4. Mythos
i. Mytho-logein: Vico and Leopardi as mythologists
ii. Towards ‘Alla Primavera’: Leopardi’s itineraries in myth (1815-1818)
iii. ‘Alla Primavera’: about (un)poetic logic
5. Philology and epos
i. Florence 1827-1828: refoundation, recovery, reconstruction
ii.
Zibaldone 4311-4417: Leopardi inside Homer’s system
6. Recourse
i. Rereading Vico in post-Revolutionary Naples: history, progress, perfectibility
ii. ‘Cantare la religione civile’: Vico’s ideas in poetry
iii. Regress, disbelief and fable in Leopardi’s last works
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
