TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lenz, Markus Alexander
ED  - Islam, Dayeh
T1  - A Prophet of Divine Wisdom?
BT  - Giambattista Vico and the Construction of the Pythagorean Myth
JF  - Philological Encounters
Special Issus: Early Modern 'New Sciences': Inquiries into Ibn Khaldun and Giambattista Vico
N2  - In the nineteenth century, the reception of Giambattista Vico’s writings came along with nationalist interpretations of his Scienza Nuova as an ‘Italian Science’. This tendency was based upon an increased examination of the role that the philosopher Pythagoras and his Italian school of Croton played in Vico’s hierarchical conception of the ancient Greek and Italian civilizations. Writers, archaeologists and historians used the New Science as a metonymic reference work for their own nationalist concepts by updating the Pythagorean myth in accordance with relevant narratives of exclusive genealogies concerning an ancient Italian wisdom. These narratives follow tendencies in Vico’s own writings that were quoted strategically and mixed with further interpretations of the Scienza Nuova as reliable testimonial for a glorious Italian history. A theological poet characterized by deeper insight into the secrets of nature and some parts of the divine providence, Pythagoras gains his special position in Vico’s general conception of knowledge.
KW  - Pythagoras
KW  - Cuoco
KW  - Mazzoldi;
KW  - prophet
KW  - Pythagorean myth
KW  - Italian nationalism
Y1  - 2020
UR  - https://brill.com/view/journals/phen/5/1/article-p50_4.xml
SN  - 2451-9189
SN  - 2451-9197
VL  - 5
IS  - 1
SP  - 50
EP  - 75
PB  - Brill
CY  - Leiden
ER  -