Pagina 20 - BCSV, XXXV, 2005

20 LEON POMPA
their constituting a coherent form of language can no longer be assumed
simply because that of thè former can. The difference between thè two
is that in thè first we have a mode of thought in terms of abstract con­
cepts, with a slightly poeticised mode of expression appropriate to this
mode, in which thè names of individuals are used in place of words for
abstract properties; and in thè second a wholly figurative mode of
thought and expression, in which ideas consist in personifications, while
language consists in entities which bear naturai, largely figurative, rela-
tions to them. It is clear that Vico has now arrived at something like thè
idea of thè imaginative universal and thè kind of poetic character ap­
propriate to signifying it, without, as yet, being able to demonstrate thè
possibility of these conceptions. And while thè kind of poetic character
made possible by thè use of antonomasia is not subject to Croce’s criti-
cism of thè first form of thought, it does not follow that this second kind
may not be.
4. As is well known, Vico criticised thè first New Science on thè
grounds that it dealt with thè origins of ideas and language separately
whereas, he claimed in his Autobiography, they were by nature united19,
a defect which he rectified in thè 1730 and 1744 editions of thè work.
Although there is otherwise considerable common ground between thè
first New Science and thè later editions, this change is accompanied by
two further major differences between them: thè disappearance of any
reference to antonomasia and thè introduction of thè concept of thè uni­
versalifantastici or, as they are also called, generifantastici, generi poeti­
ci and caratteri poetici2-®. These terms are used almost interchangeably,
although they indicate various aspects of this difficult conception, e.g.
that it is a creation of thè imagination and of poetry, that it includes both
ideas and aspects of language and that it involves some element of uni-
versality.
The importance of dealing with thè origin of ideas and languages to-
gether is brought out in thè prominent relationship that Vico describes
between poetic metaphysics and poetic logie in thè later versions of thè
New Science, to each of which he devotes a chapter in book II. The sec-
tion on poetic metaphysics is entitled «Poetic Metaphysics as thè origin
of Poetry, Idolatry, Divination and Sacrifices», a title that might initially
19 G. VICO, Vita scritta da se medesimo, in Io., Opere, ed. by A. Battistini, Milano, 1990,
voi. I, p. 79.
20 Sti44, §§ 34,209. This change has been noted both by Cantelli and Battistini (G. CAN­
TELLI, Mente corpo linguaggio, cit., pp. 56, 84; G. Vico, Opere, cit., voi. II, pp. 1531, 1835).