The course that Vico ran: the significance of the completed critical edition of the Scienza Nuova

Abstract

As interest in the thought of Giambattista Vico increases world-wide, the completion of the critical edition of his Scienza Nuova, in its successive versions of 1725, 1730, and 1744, provides an opportunity to re-assess the compositional, textual, and editorial history of the work, and to ask further questions about the work’s evolution. This article first outlines the course of the work’s composition, highlighting the complex history of the 1725 version, and the rapidity and extent of the re-writing which resulted in the version of 1730. It reviews the earlier editions of the Scienza Nuova by Ferrari and Nicolini, both of whom subordinated the 1730 version to that of 1744. The critical edition, by contrast, affirms the independence of all three versions: the article outlines the problems involved in editing each of them. It ends by opening up the question: what was Vico doing when he re-wrote the work in 1730?