Grisotto: Vico e Grice e la rhetorica conversazionale

Luigi Speranza

Vico on Rhetoric - A Bibliography. A bibliography on the role of rhetoric in the thought of Giambattista Vico (1688-1744), including primary and secondary titles.
Comprehensive Bibliographies

The revival of Vico studies that began in the late 1960s produced several comprehensive bibliographies, supplementing the basic work of Benedetto Croce and Fausto Nicolini (Naples, 1947-48).

The most recent comprehensive bibliography in English is Molly Black Verene's

Vico: A Bibliography of Works in English from 1884 to 1994 (Bowling Green, OH: Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green State University, 1994), which supplements and corrects A Bibliography of Vico in English 1884-1984, ed. Giorgio Tagliacozzo, Donald Phillip Verene, and Vanessa Rumble (Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green State University, c1986).

There has been only one supplement to this lastest bibliography, which appears in New Vico Studies 13 (1995). Although superceded by these bibliographies, Elio Gianturco's Selective Bibliography of Vico Scholarship (1948-1968) is useful for its topical organization, including the section "The Humanities; Humanism; Classical Philology; Rhetoric; Aesthetics; Literary theory; Linguistics; The Homeric question; Vico and Dante."

Bibliographies on Rhetoric

It was not until the latter third of the twentieth century that strong interest developed in the role of rhetoric in Vico's thought.

Even though Vico was a professor of rhetoric for 42 years (1699-1741), Vico scholarship largely ignored the topic of rhetoric, having been influenced by the idealist preference for aesthetics found in Vico's modern editors: Benedetto Croce, Giovani Gentile, and Fausto Nicolini.

This situation changed with the revival of Vico studies beginning in the late 1960s, in part because of a renewed interest in the central role of rhetoric in Vico's defense of humanist education, De nostri temporis studiorum ratione (1709), including an English translation by Elio Gianturco, On the Study Methods of Our Time (1965), and a series of articles by Ernesto Grassi arguing the philosophical relevance of Vico's defense of rhetoric as a counter to the dominance of Cartesianism in the modern world.

This revival eventually resulted in several books on the topic of rhetoric in Vico's thought, including Michael Mooney's

"Vico in the Tradition of Rhetoric"
(1985),

John D. Schaeffer's

"Sensus Communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism"
(1990),

and more recently the translation of Leo Catana's Vico og barokkens retorik (1996: Vico and Literary Mannerism 1999).

Because there are no published bibliographies on this topic, these books have been the only sources for comprehensive bibliographical information.

The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date list of books, chapters, and articles on the role of rhetoric in Vico's thought.

Future plans are to annotate each entry, including

key words to assist in finding particular sub-topics, e.g., Vico on ars topica, Vico on metaphor.

Vico's Works on Rhetoric

I.

"Institutiones Oratoriae"
(1711-1741)

The Institutiones Oratoriae, Vico's only monographic-length work on rhetoric, consists in the basic content of his lectures on rhetoric at the Royal University of Naples from 1711 to 1741.

The complete text of the Institutiones existed

only in manuscript form

until 1989, when Giuliano Crifò's critical edition was published.

An English translation was published as The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741) seven years later (1996).

Standard Edition

"Institutiones Oratoriae",
ed. Giuliano Crifò
(Napoli: Instituto Suor Orsola Benincasa, 1989).

Critical edition, with introduction and commentary by the editor.

English Translation

The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741), trans. by Giorgio A. Pinton and Arthur W. Shippee (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996).

Translation of Institutiones Oratoriae, ed. Giuliano Crifò (Napoli: Instituto Suor Orsola Benincasa, 1989).

Reviews & Commentary

Patella, Giuseppe. Review of Institutiones Oratoriae, by Giambattista Vico.
Translated by Aninne Schneider. New Vico Studies 5 (1991): 213-19.

"Retorica e Filosofia in Giambattista Vico: Le "Institutiones Oratoriae": Un Bilancio Critico. Edited by Giuiliano Crifò. Napoli: Guida, 1994.

Papers from an international seminar,
Retorica e filosofia in Giambattista Vico, organized by the Instituto Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples, 19 March 1990.

II. De nostri temporis studiorum ratione (1709)

Originally delivered in 1708 as the convocation for the opening of the school year at the University of Naples, Vico's De nostri criticizes the influence of Cartesianism in the schools, arguing instead that strong psychological and social needs require a curriculum grounded in the ars topica of ancient rhetoric.

Editions (chronological)

"De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (Ristampa Anastatica dell'Edito Princeps)," De nostri temporis studiorum ratione di Giambattista Vico: prima redazione inedita dal ms. XIII B 55 della Bibl. naz. di Napoli: indici e ristampa anastatica dall'edizione Napoli 1709, ed ed. (Firenze: L. S. Olschki, 2000), 375-440. Reproduction of the original 1709 publication, along with a set of concordances of the De nostri.
"De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." Le orazioni inaugurali, il De italorum sapientia, e le polemiche. Vol. 1 of Opere di Giambattista Vico. Edited by Giovanni Gentile and Fausto Nicolini. 76-121. Bari: Laterza, 1914. Rpt. 1968.

"De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." Opere Filosofiche. Edited by Paolo Cristofolini. 787- 855. Firenze: Sansoni, 1971. Latin with Italian translation.
"De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." In Opere, v. 1. Edited by Andrea Battistini. Milano: A. Mondadori, 1990. Latin with Italian translation, introduction, and extensive notes.

English Translations

"On the Study Methods of Our Time." Translated by Elio Gianturco, On the Study Methods of Our Time. 1-81. 1965; reprint, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. Translation of "De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." Le orazioni inaugurali, il De italorum sapientia, e le polemiche. Vol. 1 of Opere di Gambattista Vico. Ed. Giovanni Gentile and Fausto Nicolini. 76-121. Bari: Laterza, 1914. Rpt. 1968. Gianturco incorrectly lists B. Croce rather than Giovanni Gentile as one of the two editors. Although quite readable and supplemented with helpful editorial notes, Gianturco's loose translation of Vico's Latin may lead to mistaken inferences regarding key terms (especially important given Vico's etymological sensibility).
"On Method in Contemporary Fields of Study" [exerpts]. Vico: Selected Writings. Edited and translated by Leon Pompa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 31–45. Translated from "De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." Le orazioni inaugurali, il De italorum sapientia, e le polemiche. Vol. 1 of Opere di Gambattista Vico. Ed. Giovanni Gentile and Fausto Nicolini. 76-121. Bari: Laterza, 1914. Rpt. 1968. Pompa follows the word choice and syntax of Vico's Latin much more closely than Gianturco's translation; thus, it is unfortunate that this is not a complete translation of the De nostri.

Secondary Literature

I. Books

Catana, Leo. Vico and Literary Mannerism: A Study in the Early Vico and His Idea of Rhetoric and Ingenuity. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

Grassi, Ernesto. Vico and Humanism: Essays on Vico, Heidegger, and Rhetoric. Edited by Donald Phillip Verene. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.

Mooney, Michael. Vico in the Tradition of Rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Schaeffer, John D. Sensus Communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.

II. Articles & Chapters

Bertolini, Andrea.

"Vico on Etymology: Toward a Rhetorical Critique of Historical Genealogies."

Yale Italian Studies 1 (1977): 93-106.


Bevilacqua, Vincent M.
"Vico, Rhetorical Humanism, and the Study Methods of Our Time." Quarterly Journal of Speech 58 (1972): 70-83.

___. "Vico, 'Process,' and the Nature of Rhetorical Investigation: An Epistemological Perspective."

Philosophy and Rhetoric 7 (1974): 166-74.

___. "Campbell, Vico, and the Rhetorical Science of Human Nature."

Rhetoric Society Quarterly 13 (1983): 5-11.

___.

"Campbell, Vico, and the Rhetorical Science of Human Nature." Philosophy and Rhetoric 18 (1985): 23-30.

Costa, Gustavo.

"Vico and Ancient Rhetoric."

In Classical Influences on Western Thought, A.D. 1650-1870. Edited by R. R. Bolgar. (pp). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Crifò, Giuliano. Introduction to The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741) by Giambattista Vico. Translated by Giorgio A. Pinton and Arthur W. Shippee. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996. Translated from Introduzione to Institutiones Oratoriae (Napoli: Instituto Suor Orsola Benincasa, 1989).

de Mauro, Tullio. "Giambattista Vico: From Rhetoric to Linguistic Historicism." In Giambattista Vico: An International Symposium. Edited by Giorgio Tagliacozzo and Hayden V. White. 279-95. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969.

Giuliani, Alessandro. "Vico's Rhetorical Philosophy and the New Rhetoric." In Giambattista Vico's Science of Humanity. Edited by Giorgio Tagliacozzo and Donald Philip Verene. 69-78. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

Grassi, Ernesto. “Critical Philosophy or Topical Philosophy? Meditations on the De nostri temporis studiorum ratione." Translated by Hayden V. White. In Vico and Humanism: Essays on Vico, Heidegger, and Rhetoric. Edited by Donald Phillip Verene. 1-17. New York: Peter Lang, 1990. Reprinted from Giambattista Vico: An International Symposium (1969), 39-50.

Streuver, Nancy. "Rhetoric and Philosophy in Vichian Inquiry." New Vico Studies 3 (1985): 131-45.