Abstract

Jules Michelet translated Giambattista Vico's Scienza Nuova in 1827. Michelet's rendition became a major source of access to Vico's thought until 1948 when an authoritative English translation appeared. Michelet's version has been criticized by scholars for being inaccurate and omitting some important portions of Vico's thought. 'Why' and 'how' Vico came to catch Michelet's attention and Michelet, in his turn, called him to public attention has been lost in this criticism. This study will prove that Michelet's editing of the original text was true to the main ideas of Vico, but that Michelet's alteration of language and hence its meaning reflected the spirit of the translator's time. ;This study will proceed by first scanning the intellectual map of the turbulent years of French history roughly up to the middle of the nineteenth century, during which time Vico was welcomed, and then rejected by a number of intellectuals. Michelet's role in this reception will be discussed in terms of the affinities which his ideas shared with those of Vico. It will then examine the omissions and rearrangements of the original text by Michelet, which led to reproaches by his contemporaries and later critics. It will demonstrate, however, that Michelet's rearrangement of the New Science was actually meant to make it understood by a greater audience. With the omissions and the regrouping of paragraphs, Michelet's edition makes a much clearer reading, and thus shows Michelet's mastery of the New Science in its essence. It will finally analyze Michelet's use of language, by juxtaposing Michelet's text with that of Vico. It will argue that it was because Michelet's Science nouvelle was expressed in words which could appeal to his contemporaries, that Vico could be "discovered." ;Michelet modified Vico's magnum opus to meet his own need and that of his time. This is the reason why critics have thought Michelet's translation unreliable. Because Michelet romanticized Vico, Vico had been welcomed by the French intellectuals of the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Because Michelet made the Scienza Nuova highly readable, Vico could capture the imaginative minds of the future