Pagina 133 - BCSV, XL, 2

Ricciardi Editore, Milano-Napoli, 1953), seems to have some extra informa-
tion beside those we already have heard. In the note, at p. 113, he says that the
name Wildenstein can be read as Wallenstein or Waldstein; that our
Wildenstein was the descendant from the famous warrior Albrecht von
Waldstein–Wallenstein (1583-1634) and the ascendant of Francis Adam von
Waldstein (1759-1823), the future protector and benefactor of Giacomo
Casanova. Unfortunately, besides Vico’s mention of Wildenstein being in
Naples, and of Wildenstein’s princely nobility enhancing Vico’s gift to Leclerc,
it appears that there are no other news.
On 9 January 1722 writing to Leclerc, Vico spoke of his acquaintance with
the Count of Wildenstein: «The Most Rev. Father Tommaso Alfani, our truly
famous literato, who enjoys a continuous correspondence with you, gave me
the excellent suggestion of humbly asking the services of the Count of
Wildenstein, praying him that from Louvain, where he goes for his studies, he
be so generous to bring you this work, so that what this work does not have in
itself of worthiness it will have it from the dignity of the personage who carries
it to your most esteemed person». The Count, however, had no interests to
meet Leclerc; it appears that he sent someone on his service to carry Vico’s gift
to Leclerc, as Leclerc on 8 September 1722 acknowledged in his letter to Vico:
«A few days ago, distinguished sir, the ephor of the illustrious Count
Wildenstein delivered to me your work on the origin of law and on philology».
This is as much as we can say so far about the Count of Wildenstein and Vico,
for the reason that Vico never mentioned that he gave to the Count an extra
copy with the one of the work the Count was supposed to bring to Leclerc.
Vico and Wildenstein never met. The consigning of the two volumes (for
Leclerc and Wildenstein) must have happened by way of servants of
Wildenstein or through Tommaso Alfani (1694-1740), the one who suggested
the all affair. Of Alfani’s personality, erudition, and rapports with Vico, Croce
wrote in the Bibliografia Vichiana (pp. 230-232), and it is important to know
that as a Dominican friar Alfani spent all his life in Naples in the Dominican
Convent of San Domenico Maggiore, the place of the cultural learning center
which the young Wildenstein frequented during his permanence in Naples.
Alfani was born in Salerno in 1679 and died in Naples in 1742. He was the
acknowledged Preacher of the Church of San Domenico and King Charles
VI’s chosen Theologian of the Kingdom of Naples, as Vico will be its chosen
Historian from the beginning of 1734. It is believed, by Nicolini for example,
that Vico tutored Wildenstein, but I think that Alfani did. How could other-
wise Vico not know that Wildenstein was leaving Naples for Louvain? Did
Alfani not remind Vico of it, so that he could send a copy to Leclerc?
We may conclude, though we cannot tell much more about this young
Count of Wildenstein, that he became famous, first, for bringing the book of
Vico to Jean Leclerc, the most famous literato in the first half of Eighteenth
THE MAXIMILIAN WILDENSTEIN’S DE UNO AND DE CONSTANTIA 133