by Giambattista Vico

Giovanni Battista Vico (1668-1744), generally called Giambattista, was born in Naples, Italy, where he lived nearly all his life. His early education was unremarkable, but later, while working as a tutor, the young Vico spent a decade poring over classical literature, philosophy, and law, as well as Italian literature. In 1699 he married an uneducated friend from childhood named Teresa Destito, with whom he would have eight children. That same year, Vico was appointed professor of rhetoric at the University of Naples. Plagued always by poverty, he suffered his greatest disappointment in 1723, when he failed to secure advancement to a higher-paying job as law professor at the same university. Yet his professional frustration pushed him to begin composing the work now recognized as his masterpiece, the New Science. Vico traces this process in his Autobiografia (1725-...