RICERCA ITALIANA     

Renaissance legacy and the genesis of early modern philosophy. Texts editions and studies on the history of european philosophy from Montaigne to the early Enlightenment

Abstract

This research project (coordinated by Gianni Paganini) proposes to analyze the crucial phases of the historical process that led to the genesis and affirmation of “modern” reason; the perspective is wide from the geographical point of view (as it touches the main European countries) and from the historical point of view (as it extends chronologically from the late Renaissance to the early Enlightenment).
During the period in question, many fundamental paradigms were elaborated: by their interconnections and successions they established the basis for constructing an original relationship between philosophy, scientific knowledge, political and religious ideas, forms of organization of culture.
Obviously, we cannot think of a unique model, but of a plurality of models; nevertheless it is undeniable that all these paradigms, despite their many important differences in basis and orientation, are founded on the centrality of “ratio”; they try to apply rational methods to all the fields of knowledge. The present project focuses specifically on the historical-philosophical aspects of this process; but it also investigates their ramifications in cultural areas going from metaphysics to the theory of knowledge, from physical to moral sciences, from theology to politics, from history to physics and medicine; it also considers with particular attention the ways in which the new knowledges organize and spread. The proponents of the research project are convinced that we cannot study historically the development of philosophical knowledge if we isolate it from other forms of knowledge. We intend to consider the contributions of Italy, France, England, Holland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, in a perspective which is in every sense “European”, and to investigate the international relationships in the diffusion of ideas beyond the boundary of national cultural barriers.
Another specific aim of the project is to understand the relationships of continuity (in a perspective of 'longue duree') connecting the central epoch of modern Rationalism (the Seventeenth Century) to its Renaissance roots, on the one hand, and to developments and extensions in the early Eighteenth Century, on the other. Despite the merits of great scholars like Gilson, Gouhier, Koyré, Dijksterhuis, we cannot accept today the idea of a clear divide between modernity and the Renaissance (whether we recognize this divide in Descartes and his method, or in the affirmation of Mechanism); neither can we accept Foucault’s idea of a decisive watershed between the age of resemblances and the age of discipline and exactness. We too easily forget that Campanella was a contemporary of Descartes (and Metaphysica of Discours de la méthode); that the great authors of the Renaissance (Giordano Bruno above all, but not only) had a deep impact on the Seventeenth Century metaphysics; that the skeptical crisis at the end of the Sixteenth Century continued in the Seventeenth until the early Eighteenth Century, developing in an original and fertile way. On the other side, the polemic of the Enlightenment against metaphysics and systems cannot eclipse the crucial debt that Eighteenth century philosophers have to the philosophical revolution of the Seventeenth century.
Due to the complexity and extent of the research object, the investigation must be divided into different topics. These correspond to the contributions of each unit but they also integrate them in an consistent and complementary way: every single is project functional to the development of the others, in an well ordered sequence.
The investigation will develop on three levels: 1) critical editions of texts (inedited, rare, or whenever still unpublished according to philological standards), which will provide notes, critical apparatus, historical introductions; 2) historical and interpretive studies, intending to reconstruct the philosophical substance, the factual genesis and cultural diffusion of the investigated subjects; 3) promoting a review, collective volumes, and scientific conferences concerning the historical subjects of the research.
These are the main topics (corresponding to the contribution of the different units):
1) Roma III (led by G. Ernst) : Early Modernity between crisis and renaissances: aspects of the philosophical, scientific, moral and political culture of the Renaissance;
2) Vercelli (led by G. Paganini): From the Skeptical-Humanistic Legacy to the genesis of philosophical Empiricism.
3) Siena (led by E. Scribano): From Heresy to Pantheism: early modern theological thought.
4) Urbino (led by N. Panichi): Civil Philosophy and “Civil Conversazione” (civil conversation) in Europe (1500-1700).
5) Napoli L’Orientale (led by L. Bianchi) : From the libertine criticism to the early Enlightenment: interpretive ways between Philosophy and Science. <<<

Principal Investigator

Gianenrico Paganini Università degli Studi del PIEMONTE ORIENTALE "Amedeo Avogadro"-Vercelli

Research Objectives

The research programme aims at analysing the genesis, affirmation and role of a new conception of nature, which involved the formation of a new idea of man, during the time span between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Between the Renaissance and the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, there is no doubt that a new type of humanism became established that was profoundly different from the anthropocentric humanism of the 15th century, just as the 17th and 18th centuries were not anti-humanist, as the "received wisdom" imposed by Foucault's studies claims, but rather they developed the conception of man in scientific terms, placing that conception within the wider framework of natural laws and causality. Alongside the obvious analytical interest of the individual parts of the research, which will be in looked at in greater depth below, we point up here the more general contribution that such studies will make to a renewal of historiographic perspectives in a wider horizon. The common goal of the work of the different Units will be to show -- in a historical and documented fashion -- that between the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, in different but contemporary cultural spheres, a new conception of nature and of the science connected to it produced an equally new philosophical anthropology, and that the scientific renewal became very closely interwoven with the image of man. Another novel aspect will consist in looking at the ways in which this process was neither unidirectional nor uniform or unilateral, but that it led to results that were very diverse depending on the philosophical and cultural frameworks within which they came about. The scientific approach in fact ran transversally through very different philosophical projects, such as critical and empiristic scepticism, the "dogmatic" materialism of Hobbesian-Tolandian matrix, Leibniz’s and Spinoza’s philosophy, the "moderate" eclecticism of 18th-century Germany, the Italian anti-Enlightenment, the radical French and English Enlightenment. The second novel aspect will consist in detecting the links of continuity with late-Renaissance culture, that at least at the beginning of this "long duration" had a strong influence on the formation of modernity, both with the reconstruction of "alternative" ancient philosophies (scepticism, stoicism, Epicureanism) and with the elaboration of philosophies of physical nature and of human nature that were opposed to the dominant Aristotelian philosophies. One of the decisive aspects of the Renaissance philosophy is, in fact, a new idea of nature, which reflects not only on the "science of nature" (first and foremost, the cosmological revolution of Copernicus and Bruno comes to mind, but also the new developments in physics and medicine) but also in the sphere of metaphysics itself, as likewise in the theory of knowledge. This is, therefore, a long period of continuity (though it went through crises and fractures) between the Renaissance and 17th-century rationalism, but also a continuity between the latter and the culture of the early Enlightenment. Another novel aspect of this research will, indeed, consist in looking at how the inheritance of 17th century philosophy was still acting in depth at the start of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and from this standpoint both Montesquieu in France and eclecticism in Germany will provide privileged points of reference to verify the continuity hypothesis.

The research will be organised along three lines:
1. critical editions will be produced of works that have never been published or those that are rare or were never published in philological form, with annotations, critical apparatus and a historical introduction;
2. historical and interpretative studies will be produced, aimed at reconstructing the substance of philosophy, but also at determining the factual genesis and cultural diffusion of the themes investigated;
3. collective works and specialised scientific meetings will be promoted on the historical themes that are the subject of the research.

As far as the first point is concerned, many critical and commentated editions are planned, and will be listed in detail in the individual points of the general programme and those of the individual Units. The high points will be editions of Campanella (Del senso delle cose, Medicina, Ethica, Oeconomica), Bruno (Eroici furori, Summa terminorum metaphysicorum), Cardano (astrological writings), edition of the first French translation of the Civil conversazione by Stefano Guazzo (Vrin, Paris); an edition of texts belonging to the early and the late socinianism, the hand-written notes of Hobbes's circle, a new Italian edition of Hobbes’s polemic with Th. White, the manuscript Réflexions sur l’existence de l’âme…; Bayle’s Continuation des pensées diverses and Avis aux réfugiés, participation in the critical edition of Montesquieu's Esprit des lois (I, IV, XXIV, XXV), an edition of Spalding's Bestimmung des Menschen.

With regard to the second point, a large number of studies (books, articles, lexical research) have been planned by each of the individual Units. Some of the original works that are in project are briefly mentioned here: the work Catholic Church and Modern Science. Documents from the Roman Archives of the Holy Office; a book on the history of scepticism from Montaigne to Bayle; a book on the history of atheism between the 17th and the 18th centuries; a monography on Spinoza’ Ethica.

With regard to the third point, the scientific initiatives involving Bruno and Campanella will first be mentioned. The project Towards an Encyclopedia of Bruno and Campanella will continue, in collaboration with the CNR Institute of the European Intellectual Vocabulary and the History of Ideas (LIE). This project entails the organisation of annual seminars on terms for the encyclopaedia concerning significant themes in the works of Bruno and Campanella. After the first four seminars were held (Oct 2001, Dec 2002, Oct 2003, Oct 2004) two further meetings are planned, in 2008 and 2009: these items will be published in a first book. Among the collective books in preparation, that entitled Renaissance Skepticism is of particular importance; it will be edited by Gianni Paganini, and originates from a panel on the same subject that took place at the Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in New York; a miscellaneous volume on: For a history of the concept of civil conversation in the modern philosophical culture; the proceedings “At the origins of scientific humanism. Late Renaissance – Early Enlightenment”.
. <<<

First Results

The results we intend to obtain can be divided in three main categories:

1) critical editions of texts (inedited, rare, or whenever still unpublished according to philological standards), which will provide notes, critical apparatus, historical introductions; 2) historical and interpretive studies, intending to reconstruct the philosophical substance, the factual genesis and cultural diffusion of the investigated subjects; 3) promoting a review, collective volumes, and scientific conferences concerning the historical subjects of the research.


Here you can find the main products, divided year by year:

First year

Editions of texts

N. Panichi : French edition of (1580) "Civil Conversazione " by Guazzo, publ. by Vrin (Paris)
G. Ernst: T. Campanella, “Ethica”
G. Ernst: T. Campanella, “Lettere”
E. Canone: G. Bruno, “De gli eroici furori”
D. Giovannozzi, E. Canone: Leone Ebreo, “Dialoghi d’amore”

G. Mori: critical edition of the L’Avis aux réfugiés by Pierre Bayle (Champion, Paris, Vie des Huguenots)

G. Mori: General Introduction to the electronic edition of Pierre Bayle (Champion)
F. Tomasoni: Italian edition of Mendelssohn’s Phaidon

Historical Studies (Volumes)

L. Spruit: “Catholic Church and Modern Science. Documents from the Roman Archives of the Holy Office and the Index”, vol. I
Giovanni Sante Felici, Studi su T. Campanella (vol. I)
E. Canone, L. Spruit, “Documenti processuali di G. Bruno” (prima parte)
O. Pompeo Faracovi: “Lo specchio alto. Il dibattito sull'astrologia fra Medioevo e età moderna” (monography)

G. Paganini, Skepsis. Le débat des modernes sur le scepticisme (Paris, Vrin, coll. “De Pétrarque à Descartes”)
E. Scribano, Monography on Spinoza’s Spinoza (Laterza)
L. Simonutti, Tolérance et hérésie au XVI et au XVII siècle (Paris)

Many articles by the members of the Units in international periodicals concerning the topics of their research

Collectaneous books

Renaissance Skepticism, ed. by G. Paganini and J. Maia Neto, Springer (New York, “International Archives of the History of Ideas”)
Locke, les idées et les choses, ed. by L. Simonutti (Paris, Vrin)
The first volume of “Cassirer Studies” (Napoli, Bibliopolis) concerning Bruno’s philosophy in Warburg’s and Cassirer’s interpretations
“Dopo Machiavelli” a cura di L. Bianchi e A. Postigliola, Napoli, Liguori (about Machiavelli’s posterity in the modern and contemporary thought)
Kant et les Lumières européennes, sous la direction de L. Bianchi, J. Ferrari, G. Landolfi Petrone e A. Postigliola, Kant et les Lumières européennes, Naples-Paris, Liguori-Vrin
“Alle origini dell’umanesimo scientifico. Tardo Rinascimento – Primo Illuminismo”, ed. by L. Bianchi and G. Paganini



Conferences

G. Ernst, E. Canone (ottobre 2008), organizers : “Enciclopedia Bruniana &amp; Campanelliana” (VIII seminario di studi), Roma
G. Giglioni (organizer): “Renaissance Averroism and its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe” (Warburg Institute, London, 20-21 June 2008)
E. Canone (organizer): Seminari di terminologia filosofica e sui lessici dell’età moderna, Roma
L. Bianchi (organizer) : International conference in Naples ob skepticism and naturalism in the early modern philosophy (Napoli)
N. Panichi (Organizer): Convegno a Urbino su Dominio e servitù nel Rinascimento

Preparation of an on-line archive with texts, lexica, bibliographies concerning Bruno, Campanella, Vanini and others



Second year

Editions of texts

N. Panichi : anthology of texts concerning the “civil conversazione” in the early modern Europe
G. Ernst: Tommaso Campanella, “Oeconomica”
G. Giglioni: Tommaso Campanella, “Medicina”
E. Canone: Giordano Bruno, “Summa terminorum metaphysicorum”
S. Plastina: Moderata Fonte, “Il merito delle donne”
L. Spruit: Agostino Nifo, “De intellectu”
E. Canone, L. Spruit, “Documenti processuali di G. Bruno” (seconda parte)
G. Paganini: Italian edition (notes, commentary and introduction) of Hobbes’s polemic with Th. White
G. Paganini: study and possible edition of manuscripts belonging to Hobbes’s circle
M. Torrini: Galiani’s correspondence on the debate in science-morals-religion (mainly Galiani’s and Pallavicini’s letters)


Historical studies
Volumes

O. Pompeo Faracovi: “Il segno della Vergine nell'astrologia classica” (monography)
E. Canone, Giordano Bruno (monography)
Giovanni Sante Felici, Studi su T. Campanella (seconda parte)

E. Scribano, Monography on Leibniz
Study on F. Sozzini’s antiplatonism

Collectaneous books
Alle origini dell’umanesimo scientifico. Tardo-Rinascimento – Primo Illuminismo, ed. by L. Bianchi e G. Paganini
A collection of studies on “criticism” in Europe from the libertine tradition to Enlightenment ed. by L. Bianchi
Per una storia del concetto di conversazione civile nella cultura filosofica moderna, a cura di N. Panichi
The History of Skepticism from Renaissance to Enlightenment, ed. By J. Maia Neto, G. Paganini and C. Laursen, Brill (Koln-New York-Leiden, “Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History”)

Conferences

G. Ernst, E. Canone (ottobre 2008), organizers: “Enciclopedia Bruniana &amp; Campanelliana” (IX seminario di studi)
E. Canone (organizer): Seminari di terminologia filosofica e scientifica
L. Bianchi and G. Paganini (organizers): Final conference on: “Eredità del Rinascimento e filosofia moderna”

Periodical

The International review “Bruniana &amp; Campanelliana”, ed. by G. Ernst and E. Canone, will go on: 2008 (two issues), 2009 (two issues).


As everyone can see looking at the previous list, the research products will be published in high level publications, like the collections “De Pétrarque à Descartes” (Vrin, Paris), “International Archives of the History of Ideas” (Springer, New York), “Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History” (Leiden-Koln-New York); all these collection work with the most qualified referees. The articles will be published in the main Italian, European, north-american periodicals, like “Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana”, Bruniana e Campanelliana, Archives de Philosophie, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Journal of the History of Philosophy, and so on.




Come si può vedere dalla elencazione dei principali risultati della ricerca, la loro pubblicazione è prevista in collezioni di alta qualificazione internazionale, come la collezione “De Pétrarque à Descartes” (Vrin, Paris), gli “International Archives of the History of Ideas” (Springer, New York), i “Brill’s Studies in Intellectuale History” (Leiden-Koln-New York), tutte collezioni che operano con il sistema dei referees internazionali più qualificati. Gli articoli saranno pubblicati sulle principali riviste italiane, europee e nord-americane, come: “Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana”, Bruniana e Campanelliana, Archives de Philosophie, British Journal for the HIstory of Philosophy, Journal of the History of Philosophy, ecc. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The time has long gone when generally accepted historiography identified the philosophical conception of nature typical of modernity tout court with mechanism. Although this type of analysis produced very significant fruit (with the classical studies of Koyré, Lenoble, Dijksterhuis and Jammer, to mention only the principal ones) it was effectively replaced by a new wave of studies that paid more attention to the links and points of continuity between the new science and the new philosophy of the 17th century and their historical and cultural roots in previous eras. First and foremost, in direct continuity with some pioneering research by Gilson, a new generation of scholars stressed the metaphysical dimension of modern philosophy. Although proceeding from different presuppositions and employing different methods, scholars like J.-L, Marion, J.-R. Armogathe, V. Carraud, A. Funkenstein and C. Leijenhorst determined which part of medieval, scholastic and late-scholastic philosophy contributed to the formation and approach of the philosophies of some great moderns, whereas Funkenstein undertook an original attempt to interpret the continuity of medieval discussions on theology and on divine omnipotence within the constitution of modern scientific thought. The works of Des Chene, Gaukroger and others further developed this perspective. A different approach, but one that has been applied more rarely, is to determine the links and historical connections with Renaissance philosophy and with its new idea of nature, which is non only reflected in the “science of nature” but also in the fields of metaphysics, gneoseology and the conception of man (including ethical, political and religious aspects). Thanks to the studies of E. Garin and T. Gregory this perspective, which in Italy has solid roots, has gained a wider international horizon (for instance in the works of K. Schuhmann) but it has not yet been applied to the great thinkers of modernity: Hobbes, Bayle, Leibniz, Spinoza, up to the early Enlightenment.
Since his work has long concentrated on studying, within an ample time-frame, the great classical-Renaissance philosophical traditions in the age of modernity, the co-ordinator has acquired recognised international competence in this field of studies, which concern the continuity of traditions. Some of his recent works will suffice to illustrate this: G. PAGANINI (ed.), The Return of Scepticism from Hobbes and Descartes to Bayle, Kluwer, Boston-London-Dordrecht 2003; Scepticisme, Clandestinité et Libre Pensée / Scepticism, Clandestinity and Free-Thinking, sous la dir. de Gianni Paganini, Miguel Benitez et James Dybikowski, Champion, Paris 2002; Der Garten und die Moderne. Epikureische Moral und Politik vom Humanismus bis zur Aufklärung Arbeitsgrespraech der Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, 23. und 24 November 2000, hrsg. von Gianni Paganini und Edoardo Tortarolo, Frommann -Holzboog, Stuttgart 2004; Pierre Bayle dans la République des Lettres. Philosophie, religion, critique, éds. A. McKenna et G. Paganini, Champion, Paris, 2004.

The approach which we intend to adopt is historical-philosophical. Its potential productivity and originality are proven by the extension and authority of the critical assessments which have dealt with some crucial points of the above-mentioned historical process. The study of the natural, political and moral philosophies of the late Renaissance has been flourishing in recent years, thanks to the new Bruno edition published by the Belles Lettres in Paris and to M. Ciliberto’s annotated editions of the Dialoghi italiani and of the Scritti magici. With regard to Campanella, an intense research activity has brought to the discovery of unpublished texts, which will be included in the forthcoming National Edition of the whole of his writings. At an international level, Ernst’s and Headley’s monographs, Lerner’s new edition of the Apologia di Galileo and Ernst’s edition of the italian text of Ateismo trionfato mark a sort of return to Campanella, which follows the great season of Firpo’s works, continued by the remarkable activities of a specialised periodical such as "Bruniana &amp; Campanelliana".
Therefore, the influence of late Renaissance philosophies in the genesis of modern philosophy has been more and more acknowledged as important and extensive, the question of the origins of seventeenth-century rationalism has become more complex.
This cluster of activities had – and still has – a deep impact also on the history of Cartesianism in Italy, and mainly in Naples and in the ‘Mezzogiorno’. In Italy, the intellectual amalgamation of late Renaissance philosophies, scientific interests and Cartesian rationalism is an undeniable fact as well as a paradigm for a wide-range historical research. A solid tradition in historical research (Garin, Venturi, Badaloni, Galasso, Giarrizzo, Ricuperati, Bolzoni e Eaman) has provided the background for the more recent studies produced or directed by Torrini, Lomonaco, Loiacono. These studies opened up a new line of research concerning the milieu of the ‘Investiganti’, the circulation of Della Porta’s works, N. Cirillo, N. Di Martino, F. Colonna and C. Galiani.
The age of modern philosophy, coming after the late Renaissance anti-Aristotelian crisis, is characterised by a new definition attempt of ‘First Philosophy’’s tasks and features, which preludes to its transformation, and, in many cases, to its ultimate decline. This is also the age of sceptical ‘crisis’ and criticism is now a new model for modest, non dogmatic, self-limiting reason. This evolution is closely – and often polemically – linked to the vicissitudes of Cartesianism, but leads to results which are deeply different and incompatible with every Cartesian orthodoxy. Recent studies on Hobbes (by Skinner, Zarka and Schuhmann), on Bayle and the sceptical tradition (by Popkin, Moreau, Paganini, Mori, McKenna), on the Lockian and Neo-Platonic traditions (by Rogers and Hutton respectively), have brought to light some peculiar results of seventeenth-century metaphysical debates, which, despite their variety and difference of intent, bear generally an anti-Cartesian character. This evolution might be described in terms of a shift from a constructive and systematic meaning to a strongly ‘critical’ one, which is the result of a melting pot of influences: the tradition of Renaissance philology and humanist studies, the sceptical contribution, the erudition of the ‘libertines’ but also Hobbes’s attempt to implant a ‘First Philosophy’, opposed not only to Aristotle’s "prote philosophia" but also to Descartes’s "Meditationes de philosophia prima".

For every single aspect of the planned research, the critical-historical approach will be backed by a philological work of edition. This will particularly concern some important textual corpora for which an authoritative philological model already exists. With regard to Bruno’s works, we will refer to the editorial activity undertook and recently developed on a new basis by M. Ciliberto. For Campanella’s writings, beside Firpo’s exemplary work, an up-to-date reference work is constituted by G. Ernst’s edition of the Articuli prophetales, which is to be soon followed by the Italian version of Ateismo trionfato (included in Campanella’s National Edition). For Hobbes’s writings, the reference edition work is constituted by the new critical edition of "Hobbes latinus" (Vrin, Paris), whose first volume has already appeared (De corpore, ed. by K. Schuhmann), but see also the Clarendon edition and in particular the Hobbes Correspondance, ed. by N. Malcolm. Concerning the clandestine philosophical manuscripts, we will follow the path opened by the critical Latin edition of Theophrastus redivivus, and, for texts written in modern languages, by the critical edition of the Examen de la religion, published by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford. The series “Libre pensée et littérature clandestine", directed by A. McKenna, has recently provided important contributions in the same direction.
We may thus conclude that the research is founded on a solid background, and that it possesses all the necessary requirements for obtaining original results, from both a philological-textual and an historical-philosophical point of view. <<<