Pagina 129 - BCSV, XL, 2

or his estate, through the different ownership of Giuseppe Solari and Filippo
Raffaelli, this volume ended at the Biblioteca Nazionale of Naples, where it
received the signature XIII B 62, which seems the one still valid. Placella con-
siders this volume the unique tool for the understanding of the mental evolution
and methodology Vico used throughout his professional career. The abundance
of autograph material contained in the first two books, will allow the clarifica-
tion of the stratification of Vico’s corrections and comments. The third book
Notae is also certainly very important for the study of the edoctica and the stra-
tification of material: Notae (p. 79, lines 29-34) is the only one of the three books
in which Vico cancelled completely a sentence in a manner that it is illegible and
substituted it with another one he wrote in the margin. The number of the peo-
ple that received Notae was limited. Every copy of Du and or Du-De const.
donated or sold before the end of September-October 1722 required Vico’s
attention, reflection, great patience, knowledge of persons and their interests;
expertise, tremendous efforts, time, and rest when too sharp was the pain due
to his rheumatoid arthritis; ink supply, feather pens, and absorbent paper; visu-
al memory of the material, and decision making on which single error to correct
or which comment to add in calce, in a clear, neat, accurate, legible way, without
maculating the page as he did in the copy he kept for his own use.
Having Vico preserved for a while and then printed in Notae the extensive
autograph comments added to in separate sheets or written on the margin of
the copy sent to Prince Eugene, the Naples codex became enormously rich of
all kinds of manifestations of the working mind of Vico, of the stratifications
of thought and its fossilizing into words that are unchangeable once printed in
the final page. Vico had to use the Gervasi Codex as his guide to hunt for edi-
torial imperfections, which are almost countless so that it would be almost
impossible to correct their entirety, in any single session. The solution Vico
decided for was to adopt this task: correct, add, change the printed text not as
the text needed, but as the receiver would look at it. The Gervasi Codex
remained the original source from which to copy the selected comments; not
all, and not at random, but according to the intellectual level or knowledge of
the material of the person to whom he intended to give the books as a gift.
Before the opportunity of studying the Wildenstein Codex , I considered the
Gervasi Codex the Ur-copy of all existing copies of Du, De const., and Notae,
known or still unknown. After September 1722, however, what reason could
Vico have had to adorn with comments future copies to be given in gift?
Would the discovery of any new exemplar add anything to our already
acquired knowledge of Vico’s mental functionality, technological ability, and
psychological interperspective selectivity of readers of his own works? Placella
says, «The stratifications within the corpus of autograph apostils are […] evi-
dent, even if we only pay attention to the ink and the ductus»; and Francesco
Predari’s edition of the Diritto universale also underlines the importance of
THE MAXIMILIAN WILDENSTEIN’S DE UNO AND DE CONSTANTIA 129