On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians: Drawn Out from the Origins of the Latin Language

This volume comprises a new critical edition and translation of Giambattista Vico's challenging and provoking early work On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians. The Latin edition faithfully reproduces Vico's original 1710 text as first printed; it is accompanied by Jason Taylor's complete, accurate, and highly readable English translation.

In an illuminating introduction to the volume, Robert Miner elucidates Vico's short but difficult work; at the same time, he allows the reader to assess the importance of that work, in absolute terms as well as relative to Vico's other writings and the work of his numerous interlocutors in the republic of letters.

Taken as a whole, this volume provides the text and guidance to support a fresh engagement with Vico's thought, especially his earliest philosophical works. It will also serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars with interests in eighteenth-century thought.

Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was Professor of Latin Eloquence at the University of Naples and is widely regarded as founder of the moder philosophy of history. His major work, The New Science (Scienza nuova), argues for the convergence of history and the social sciences in order to form a single science of humanity. Vico's views found a wide audience starting in the nineteenth century
Jason Taylor is assistant professor of philosophy, Regis University.
Robert Miner is associate professor of philosophy in the Honors College, Baylor University.