Abstract

The essay refers to the recent reprints of Gregorio Caloprese's "Opere" and Gianvincenzo Gravina's "Originum juris civilis libri tres" and to the recent thick monograph that Francesco Lomonaco devotes to Gravina. The new attention towards XVIIth Century Italian southern culture partially corrects the famous judgement that, from De Sanctis onwards, negates any value to such culture, in comparison to the giants that precede it (Bruno, Campanella) or follow (Vico). The political reading of Descartes, above all, is of particular interest insofar as it represents an attempt to build and legitimize a new leading rulership in the Neapolitan "viceregno". One of the evident limits of that culture is abstract rationalism, in opposition to which the greatness of the Vichian philosophical-political construction undoubtedly stands out.