Giambattista Vico’s readers in mid-nineteenth-century France, c. 1820-1850

This dissertation is concerned with how Giambattista Vico’s writings were read in France during the first half of the nineteenth century. By disentangling Vico’s legacy from an historicist account, I chart how his work was used to inform the writing of universal histories, principally by Pierre-Simon Ballanche, Jules Michelet, Giuseppe Ferrari and Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso. In providing a broader aperture of analysis, as well as one more sensitive to the French context, I look at the development of religious thought, especially Catholic theology and moral theory, as they were read in Vico and interpreted in nineteenth-century France. More than an object of antiquarian interest, the universal histories written and inspired by Vico's thought sought to answer the question of man in society. The basic posture of this thesis is to work on the philosophical and historical foundations of sociability as an item of religious thought. It raises questions such as: are human beings, born animals, sociable? Is humanity naturally guided towards social coexistence? How can harmonious societies emerge over time? And above all, how is all this possible in the aftermath of the French Revolution? More broadly, in shoring up the overt theological concerns of Vico’s readers, I trace the combined development of theories of French secularisation and modernisation alongside an ever-present concern with the ritualistic basis of the nation’s cultural and political life.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Palmer, Daniele Giuseppe

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bourke, Richard

• Ballanche
• Civilisation
• French Political Thought
• Historicism
• Michelet
• Sociability
• Theology
• Vico

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/7d14e4b0-055a-4a2e-ac17-024441fa7e81/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.122888

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/391979