Pagina 149 - BCSV, XL, 2
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It means: «To the most Illustrious and Excellent Lord / Maximilian
Wildenstein, Regards from the Author G[iambattista] V[ico]». The extra nov-
elty, in the title page of this exemplar, is found on the right top corner above
the second half of the first printed line (JOH. BAPTISTAE VICI). Three
handwritten phrases exist on three levels:
Addressez Sacré à l’Auteur
Polet Sacré
Staesi Polet
The first two phrases would be: «Send thanks to the author / A nice Card /»;
in the third expression, we are facing a mixture of French and Dutch. In addi-
tion, for the purpose of reminding oneself, the top right corner shows the
straight diagonal line of its having being folded for a long time in the direction
of page three and resting on the retro of page one (pointing to the citation
from Cicero). It is possible that Maximilian wrote the three expressions wish-
ing, once arrived at Louvain, to remind himself or a secretary of sending a note
of appreciation to Vico for the gift. There is more. The endpaper (p. 265) of
the
Wildenstein Exemplar
(at the end of Table B) the one sheet that is glued
over the inside end band or cover of the volume, shows two paragraphs hand
written in pencil in modern cursive Italian: «First edition of the
De uno
and of
the
De Constantia
. Naples, Mosca 1720-1721» followed by an identifying
library number; «Valuable exemplar with the dedication of Vico to the count
of Wildenstein, (cited in the bibliography of Croce, first vol., p. 25) with some
corrections and apostils in the author’s hand. It is complete». The description
of the volume is by the hand of a learned person, not of the same person who
assigned the numerical series of a catalogue and used a different pencil or used
it in a harder manner; the writing is darker and stands out, in contrast to the
paler one of the learned individual. The endpaper note has been written in the
twenty century, sometime after the
Bibliografia Vichiana
of 1947 was pub-
lished, because it is to that the learned person made reference in writing its
description. World War II may have been a far removed cause of the reappear-
ance of this exemplar in Turin. With the exception of the mentioned top fold-
ed corner of the title page, the volume shows no signs of abuse or of consulta-
tion throughout its pages, which show only the aging of the paper.
Having completed our temporary task of indicating the evident character-
istics of the
Wildenstein Exemplar
, we have implicitly learned what this exem-
plar tells about (a) how Vico handled his publications; (b) how he looked at
specific persons as readers; (c) how he decided on the corrections to make and
the additions to include in every exemplar to be given away. The definitive
evaluation of each existent exemplar would require a comparison with the
Gervasi Exemplar
(the MS. XIII B 62 of the Biblioteca Nazionale of Naples),
THE MAXIMILIAN WILDENSTEIN’S
DE UNO
AND
DE CONSTANTIA
149
