Hebrew Printing in Sabbioneta 1 AFFO, Ireneo - Schulz-Falster Rare ...

The Founder of the History of Ideas
117 VICO, Giambattista. Principj di Scienza Nuova ... d’Intorno
alla Comune Natura delle Nazioni in questa terza impressione dal
medesimo Autore in un gran numero di luoghi Corretta, Schiarita,
e notabilment Accresciuta. Tomo I [–Tomo II]. Naples, Stamperia
Muziana, 1744. £3800
Two volumes bound in one, 8vo, pp. [ii] frontispiece portrait, [xvi],
[ii] allegoric engraved frontispiece, 376, one folding printed table
bound in; [377]–526 [vere 516], [4] index; engraved title vignette; a
few signatures lightly browned, due to paper stock, and faint marginal
damp-stain to Wrst signature; contemporary paste-paper covered boards,
spine label lettered in manuscript; corners a little bumped, but in all a
very good copy.
Third and deWnitive edition of Vico’s masterpiece, which had originally
been published in 1725, rewritten for the second edition (1730), and further
extensively revised for this one. Ahead of his time, Vico was neglected
during his life and forgotten for years after his death, but his Scienza Nuova
laid the foundations for many of the most important intellectual developments
of the following two centuries. It was in this deWnitive edition, published
in the year of Vico’s death, that his ideas became known.
The Principi di una Scienza Nuova has been justly called ‘the vehicle by
which the concept of historical development at last entered the thought of
western Europe’ (PMM 184). It remains one of the most inXuential treatises
in the history of ideas. The concept of a history of human ideas, the
principles of a universal history and its philosophical criticism, a recognition
of the importance of social classes all begin with Vico. Vico was the
Wrst to formulate a systematic method for historical research. He revived the
Greek concept that the course of history was subject to cyclical phases (corsi
e ricorsi). This however did not indicate an upward or forward move towards
perfection: according to Vico there exists in history a pattern which
repeats itself in each civilisation, a storia ideale eterna. Just as the individual
man passes through successive states, so does the history of civilisation.
Croce I, p. 53, Gamba 2493; see Printing and the Mind of Man 184 for Wrst edition.
The Best of All Possible Worlds – Very Rare
First Edition of Candide
118 [VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de.] Candide, ou
l’Optimisme, traduit de l’allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph.
[Geneva, Cramer], 1759. £18000
12mo, pp. 299; last few pages with minute repaired worm trace
in blank margin, not aVecting text; stamp expertly removed from
title page; nineteenth century crushed dark green morocco, spine
susanne schulz-falster rare books