The Life of Vico: A Career in Naples
The Life of Vico: A Career in Naples
This chapter describes Vico's descent from the timeless world of childhood to the underworld of a coma, from which he emerged as a child of Saturn, of Chronos, with the melancholic and acrid nature of a philosopher. Vico was transformed from a lively and restless child of fair disposition into a youth whose temperament is associated with ingenious and profound thinkers who, as Vico says, “through ingenuity flash like lightning in acuity, through reflection take no pleasure in witticism and falsity.” The cause of this transformation was Vico's fall, at the age of seven, headfirst from the top of a ladder to the floor. This fall fractured his skull severely, and he remained so long unconscious that the attending surgeon predicted he would either die or survive stolid.
Keywords: timeless world, childhood, Saturn, Chronos, restless child, fair disposition
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