CATTANEO ILLUMINISTA

Abstract

Carlo Cattaneo came to know Giambattista Vico’s writings – that were toshape his education – through his master Giandomenico Romagnosi. The Neapolitanphilosopher’s thought had been known to Lombard intellectuals at least since the 1760sbut it spread enormously when the Republicans fleeing Naples arrived in Milan andsupported a reading of Vico side by side the Lombard Lumi, starting from the themeof civilized development and the laws supporting it. Following on from Romagnosi,Cattaneo devoted a steady interest – certainly stronger than any he had devoted to otherphilosophers, whether Italian or foreign – in the Neapolitan thinker through his wholetheoretical production. Cattaneo strove to develop the most promising aspects of Vico’sthought, even though he was aware of its historical limitations – that for certain aspectsfell behind even his own times – and therefore of its distance from the Enlightenment,especially the Lombard Enlightenment, whose legacy he claimed to himself.