Pagina 134 - BCSV, XL, 2

Century Europe; second, being mentioned in the correspondence between
Vico and Leclerc; and third, because Vico dedicated an exemplar of his work
to him making his name known to all students of Vico.
The volume, which Vico donated to the Count of Wildenstein, of both Du
and De const., was acquired many years ago by a London antiquarian from an
Italian bookseller of Turin. The present owner, William Zachs of Edinburgh,
Scotland, declared, in 2009, he had obtained the volume from the London
bookseller four years before. What the London antiquarian said raised the
question in someone’s mind whether or not the Wildenstein Exemplar left
Naples and, if it did, how did it reappear in Italy. From the physical character-
istics of this exemplar, for which we may see Table B, I deduced that the
Wildenstein Exemplar left Italy for Louvain with the Leclerc Exemplar and the
rest of the Count’s possessions in a strong wooden trunk, probably by the post
chaise, allowing the Count to complete his Grand Tour returning to Louvain
by way of Brussels, the great center of the Tour, distant no more than sixteen
kilometers. The two volumes remained in the trunk from April-May to the
beginning of September 1722, when the Count, to fulfill his reluctantly given
word, sent an ephor who with a coach covered the one hundred kilometers
that separates Louvain from Utrecht, to bring at last the gift to Jean Leclerc.
Why did the Count wait so long? Perhaps, it was only at the beginning of
classes with the coming of autumn that he opened the trunk to rescue his
books or school texts or journals about the tour when he saw the gift of Vico
for Leclerc and the copy for himself. He must have written on the spot the
exclamations on the right corner of the title of the book, to do what he prom-
ised and to write to Vico a note of acknowledgment. The Wildenstein
Exemplar must have remained within the Wildenstein Estate for a very long
time before being sold, brought back to Italy, and catalogued for an Italian
Public Library in the third decade of the Twenty Century. It is not surprising
that the Wildenstein Exemplar was found in Turin, not only because it was the
first Italian city in the Grand Tour, but also because of the languages spoken
in this city. Anyone in possession of this Codex, with the intention to sell,
would preferably have come from Belgium, Holland, or France.
In this essay, when we speak of exemplars or codices, we speak of surviv-
ing copies of an original and quizzical printed Vichian text whose copies are
all identical since no extra reprints or new editions were made afterward. As
we explained above, the surviving copies, exemplars or codices, are important
to Vico studies because, if they were given to friends, rich or poor literati, per-
sons of authority, fame or nobility for various personal reasons of the author,
between the end of September 1720 and end of August 1722, they were made
famous by the wealth of autograph corrections, additions, comments that they
could exhibit. The importance of each exemplar is equally great to all others
but different because Vico created for each one of them a new identity due to
GIORGIO A. PINTON 134