on the assumption that Vico copied the corrections, modifications, and addi-
tions which he wanted to include into the copy of the volume he wanted to
donate, accordingly to the age, education, profession of the receiver. When the
hopeful Ur-Codex is placed beside any other, it is possible to discover the
amazing stratification of Vichian thought, the quality and quantity of com-
pelling interventions, the spiral of grammatical and syntactical choices, the
challenge of new meanings emerging from the changing of simple punctua-
tions, and the surprising dissatisfaction that the author reveals in his torment-
ing the already tortured impossible to change printed text. It is from the study
of the comparative analysis of the
Gervasi Exemplar
with other
existing exem-
plars
that we would be able to conclude if the
Gervasi
is the Ur-Codex and if
we can proceed to work on the definitive text of the
Diritto universale
.
For the following comparison, it may be necessary to repeat some general
information. In
Du
, the number of asterisks (****) refers to footnotes, but in
De const.
, the number of the footnote is in digits, and one asterisk (*) alone in
the column refers to an oldest note written originally in the Vienna Exemplar,
before being printed in
Notae
, where it is also indicated by an (*) asterisk. In
the
Gervasi-Codex
, the symbol (
f
), both in
Du
and
De const.
, tells that in the
margins Vico wrote the phrase «
Vide Notarum paginam
» used in a variety of
abbreviations (
Vid. Not. p.
;
V. N. p.
;
V. Not. p.
), that is «See page ___ of the
Notes», referring to
Notae
, but it refers also to added comments. Sometimes,
Vico underlines a word to say that it is correct, but that another one is prefer-
able
.
GIORGIO A. PINTON
150
1...,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149 151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,...220