Giambattista Vico was a professor of rhetoric at the University of Naples. He is best known as the author of two works,
De Nostri Temporum Studiorum Ratione[
On the Method of the Studies of Our Time] (1709), an attempt to balance the wisdom of antiquity with the achievements of modernity, and the
Scienza Nuova[
New Science], a multi-aspected work that describes itself as a “rational civil theology of divine providence”. In the 1710s Vico ardently aspired to the chair of law at the University of Naples. The law chair paid six times as much as the position in rhetoric that he held for the bulk of his university career. He regarded his failure to attain the chair as ultimately providential, since it gave him the time to write and revise the
Scienza Nuova, up to his death.
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Citation: Miner, Robert C.. "Giambattista Vico". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 July 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4539, accessed 21 November 2024.]
