Pagina 132 - BCSV, XL, 2

Of the six exemplars above, the most recently discovered is the one dedi-

cated to Count Maximilian of Wildenstein. Vico students know about the

Count of Wildenstein, but that Vico gave a volume containing the

Du

and the

De const.

to Count Wildenstein was totally unknown and unsuspected. It

would be worthy therefore for some readers that we narrate whom, within the

studies of Vico, Count Maximilian of Wildenstein is.

Wildenstein is mentioned once in M. H. Fisch & T. G. Bergin,

The

Autobiography of Giambattista Vico

(Ithaca, Cornell U. P., 1944, p. 159), once

in Andrea Battistini,

Vico Opere

(Milano, Mondadori, 2000, p. 1290); in both,

Wildenstein is not in the index. Benedetto Croce is more generous and in the

Bibliografia Vichiana

(2 voll. Napoli, Ricciardi, 1947, vol. I, pp. 24-25) writes

about the editorial kind of volume Vico wished to publish and about some

special copies he wanted printed on special paper of larger dimensions. This

information is valid for the exemplar under our consideration:

In conformity with what he promised in the

Synopsis

, between the end of August and

the beginning of September 1720 Vico published the work with the title J

OH

.

B

APTISTAE

V

ICI

De uno universi iuris principio et fine uno liber unus, ad amplissimum

virum Franciscum Venturam, a Regis consiliis et criminum quaestorem alterum

(Excudebat Neapoli Felix Musca ex publica auctoritate, MDCCXX). In almost all

other published works, previously and afterward, Vico – faithful even in the physical

aspects of things to the maxim that true scholars should publish books that are small

but full of their own thoughts (

Opere

, vol. 1, 215) – adopted and will adopt the agile

cut of the

dodicesimo

. On the contrary, the

De uno

as well as the

De Constantia

and the

Notae

, were printed in

quarto

. Thus, the

De uno

was apt to contain the all matter in

195 numbered pages, plus four unnumbered in the beginning, dedicated to the fron-

tispiece, the epigraph from Cicero, and to the reviews for the permission to print. How

many exemplars were printed on common paper, it is not known; perhaps, one thou-

sand the like for the

Scienza nuova prima

. We are instead certain that several ones were

printed on paper distinguished by remarkably wide margins. Of these exemplars,

between October or November 1720, one was sent, by the courtesy of the

Neapoletanized Florentine Alessandro Rinuccini (1686-1758), to Anton Maria Salvini

(see

Opere

, vol. V, p. 156); a second, […] was sent later on, together with the

De con-

stantia

, to Prince Eugene of Savoy; a third one, at last, for the suggestion of the

Dominican Neapolitan erudite Tommaso Maria Alfani […] was trusted, on 9 February

1722 and also this time together with the

De constantia,

in the hand of the young

Count of Wildenstein, in order that he would, once arrived in Louvain, bring both

books to Jean Leclerc (see

Opere

, vol. V, p. 177).

But, about Wildenstein, Croce says only that he was a young aristocrat, dis-

posed to do Vico a favor. Fausto Nicolini, in G. V

ICO

,

Opere

(Riccardo

GIORGIO A. PINTON

132