# Principj della filosofia di Renato Des-Cartes. Tradotti dal Francese col confronto del Latino in cui l’Autore gli scrisse da Giuseppa-Eleonora Barbapiccola tra gli Arcadi Mirista

**Autore:** Descartes René
**Dati Editoriali:** Turin, Giovanni Francesco Mairesse [i.e. Naples, unknown printer], 1722
**Codice Archivio:** 129
**Prezzo:** 5200 USD
**Stato Commerciale:** Disponibile
**Link Ufficiale Collezione:** https://www.govirarebooks.com/products/descartes-principj-1722

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## Descrizione Accademica e Analisi
4to (220x155 mm). [40], 350, [18] pp. and the portrait of Giuseppa Barbapiccola engraved by Francesco de Grado. Collation: [†]-†††4 **-***4 A-Zz4. With several woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text (some full page). Lavishly bound in contemporary stiff vellum gilt, on the panels gilt coat-of-arms of Cardinal Niccolò Coscia (1682-1755, a much discussed cardinal who during his life time lived also in Naples and may have personally met Barbapiccola, see below), marbled pastedowns, red marbled edges (slightly soiled and worn). Small hole to l. K4 slightly affecting the text, small tear to the lower blank margin of l. S4, some occasional pale staining, a very good, genuine copy with wide margins. Rare first edition. “In 1722 Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola (ca. 1700-ca. 1740) translated René Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy (1644), working primarily from the 1647 French edition rather than the Latin original. Allegedly published in Turin by Giovan Francesco Mairesse, it was in all likelihood one of many books published in Naples under false imprimatur in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The fact that a Neapolitan artist, F. De Grado, engraved Barbapiccola’s portrait for the translation makes it even more probable that it was both written and published there. Like many philosophical works published in Naples, including a number of books that Barbapiccola cited in her preface, it may have been part of the semiclandestine circulation of books in the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples […] More than simply a translation of Descartes’s important work, Barbapiccola’s Italian edition was also a manifesto of women’s right to learn. In her preface, entitled ‘The Translator to the Reader’, she presented Descartes as the creator of a philosophy that celebrated the female mind […] Barbapiccola demonstrated that one did not need to be of royal blood to understand Descartes or, more generally, to reflect on important philosophical questions. But she did far more than this, since her preface was simultaneously a history of women’s learning, a history of philosophy, and an autobiography. She self-consciously presented herself as an heir to the seventeenth-century tradition of Cartesian women and celebrated its arrival in the city of Naples, where she was one of several women known for their philosophical crudition by the early eighteenth century. Another leading female Cartesian, the duchess of Limatola, Aurelia d’Este (1683-1719), had recently died , making it possible for a younger, less noble woman to claim the place that d’Este had occupied as the preeminent Cartesian woman in the city. Barbapiccola offered her own tribute to d’Este when she praised Paolo Mattia Doria for writing his Dialogues in Which It Is Demonstrated That Woman, in Almost All the Important Virtues, Is Not Inferior to Man (1716), a work he addressed to his famous aristocratic pupil, Aurelia d’Este, while he was still enamored with Cartesian philosophy […] Barbapiccola’s preface brought together several different strands of intellectual debate then preoccupying scholars in Naples. On the one hand, it responded to the growing anti-Cartesianism of important philosophers such as Vico and Doria, who increasingly felt that a modern metaphysics that emphasized the mathematical certainty of reason limited the possibilities for other kinds of discussions about the nature of knowledge. On the other hand, it sought to integrate some of the new philosophical insights of Neapolitan scholars into a fresh reading of Descartes. Her preface, for example, invoked Vico’s On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians (1710), a controversial book dedicated to Doria that presented his new historical consciousness about the origins of knowledge as an implicit alternative to Cartesian epistemology. Within a decade, both philosophers would tum away from Descartes, leaving others to defend his philosophy: Barbapiccola, for example, would argue that these different approaches to knowledge were not incompatible […] So much of Barbapiccola’s text is concerned with these philosophical issues that it is easy to forget that she also intended her work as a defense of women’s right to philosophize. History gave her inspiration for her pursuit of learning with its numerous examples of learned women. Knowledge of languages such as Latin gave her the tools for reading and understanding the kind of learning that lay beyond the traditional scope of women’s studies. But it was Cartesian philosophy that gave her the tools to think critically about knowledge […] Through the early 1730s, Neapolitan scholars continued to celebrate Barbapiccola as the woman who had made Descartes glorious in Italy, even as the fascination with Descartes was eclipsed by a new passion for the writings of English philosophers such as John Locke and Isaac Newton.The printer-bookseller Bernardino Gessari advertised Barbapiccola’s translation in 1734 as one of the books to be purchased at his shop on Via San Biagio del Libra. Her book also circulated in other parts of the italian peninsula. In 1740 , for example, when the Sienese cleric Giovan Nicolò Bandiera published his important and controversial treatise on women’s education, he knew enough about Barbapiccola’s work to include her name in his list of contemporary women engaged in philosophical and scientific pursuits in Naples” (P. Findlen, Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola, in: “The Contest for Knowledge: Debates over Women’s Education in Eighteenth-Century Venice”, R. Messbarger and P. Findlen, eds., Chicago, 2005, pp. 37-45).Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola, an important figure in early 18th century Naples cultural circles and a groundbreaking champion for the inclusion of women in natural philosophy and the physical sciences, achieved international scholarly renown through her 1722 translation into Italian of René Descartes’ Principia Philosophiae, which was prefaced by an original feminist manifesto “A’ Lettori” (‘To the Readers’). In this prefatory discourse, Barbapiccola articulated a harsh critique of contemporary educational disparities, arguing that women’s intellectual perceived inferiority was not a consequence of biological or ontological deficiency, but rather the artificial product of systemic educational deprivation. By deploying Cartesian epistemology itself - specifically the doctrine of clear and distinct ideas and the radical dualism of mind and body - Barbapiccola demonstrated that the faculty of reason is fundamentally ungendered, thereby establishing a philosophical foundation for female intellectual emancipation.Born in Salerno around the turn of the eighteenth century, Barbapiccola belonged to an educated, socially prominent family with deep clerical, legal, and intellectual ties across the Kingdom of Naples. Her upbringing was profoundly shaped by her uncle, Agostino Barbapiccola, a learned ecclesiastic, canonist, and active participant in Neapolitan literary circles. Recognizing his niece’s exceptional aptitude, Agostino facilitated her rigorous domestic education, exposing her to classical Latin, modern French, geometry, natural history, and metaphysics. Unlike many of her female contemporaries whose education was confined to devotional literature and domestic arts within convent walls or noble households, Barbapiccola gained direct access to the private libraries and private academies of Naples. During this era, Naples was experiencing a dramatic philosophical shift: the traditional Aristotelian-Scholastic paradigm, long enforced by ecclesiastical authorities, was being vigorously challenged by the jusnaturalism, atomism, and mechanical philosophy promoted by the Accademia degli Investiganti - a vanguard institution founded by Tommaso Cornelio, Leonardo Di Capua, and Lucantonio Porzio. It was within this intellectually charged atmosphere of Neapolitan Cartesianism that Barbapiccola acquired her deep mastery of modern physics and mechanical philosophy.Barbapiccola’s magnum opus was a masterpiece of philosophical translation and linguistic adaptation. Translating Descartes’ original Latin text (first published in Amsterdam in 1644) alongside Claude Clerselier’s authoritative French version (1647), Barbapiccola aimed to make modern mechanical philosophy accessible to an Italian readership, particularly to women who were routinely denied instruction in academic Latin. In her self-assured preface, she boldly situated her work within the long history of female intellectual achievement, evoking classical and modern precedents such as Hypatia of Alexandria, Diotima, Veronica Gambara, Vittoria Colonna, Cassandra Fedele, Anna Maria van Schurmann and Anne Dacier among others. Barbapiccola explicitly challenged the misogynistic assertions of philosophers such as Claude Fleury, who argued in his Traité du choix et de la méthode des études (1686) that female physiology was too delicate or soft to comprehend abstract scientific principles. Barbapiccola contended that if female nerves were indeed more delicate, women were uniquely endowed with superior perceptual sensitivity and cognitive agility, making them exceptionally suited for scientific inquiry.Her translation was not merely a passive linguistic exercise, but an active intervention in European philosophical discourse, seeking to dismantle the gendered barriers surrounding the res publica literaria. Barbapiccola was an active member of the prestigious Accademia degli Arcadi (the Arcadian Academy), adopting the pastoral pseudonym Mirista, under which she composed erudite poetry and exchanged philosophical verses with leading scholars of the realm. Chief among her allies and admirers were the eminent philosopher and historian Giambattista Vico (who is quoted in the preface) and Gherardo degli Angeli. Gherardo was so profoundly impressed by Barbapiccola’s erudition and translation project that he composed an encomiastic sonnet, titled In lode della signora Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola, che ha tradotto da’ francesi ne’ nostri favellari i Principi della Filosofia di Renato Des-Cartes (Rime Scelte, Florence, 1730, vol. 3, p. 104).In this poem, Gherardo celebrated her as a shining beacon of Neapolitan genius who had surpassed the achievements of foreign scholars. Barbapiccola was very close not only to Vico, but also to Vico’s favourite daughter, Luisa, a highly educated woman and a poetress (the two women exchanged poems), and cultivated close ties with prominent Neapolitan natural philosophers, including Pietro Antonio de Martino, Bernardo De Dominici, and the literary patron Antonio Niccolini.The publishing history of Barbapiccola’s I Principi della Filosofia di Renato Des-Cartes, which had been put on the Index of prohibed books as early as 1683, reflects the complex geopolitical and censorial realities of early eighteenth-century Naples. Printed in 1722, the title page bears the false or strategic imprint of Turin, a common typographical maneuver utilized by Neapolitan publishers to bypass local ecclesiastical censorship and political scrutiny regarding Cartesian mechanical philosophy, which remained controversial due to its implications for Eucharistic theology and scholastic physics. The edition included comprehensive diagrams of Cartesian vortices, planetary orbits, and atomic structures, meticulously reproduced to ensure that Italian readers could fully grasp Descartes’ physical cosmology.The owner of the present volume, Niccolò Coscia, was born on 25 January 1682 in Pietradefusi (also known as Petrafusa) in the Archdiocese of Benevento, into a poor and obscure family. He studied at La Sapienza University in Rome, obtaining a doctorate in utroque iure (both canon and civil law) on 30 March 1715. He met Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini, the Archbishop of Benevento and future Pope Benedict XIII, while still young. During one of the cardinal's pastoral visits, he encouraged Coscia to enter the ecclesiastical state and conferred the first tonsure in May 1696. Niccolò studied under the cardinal’s auspices and learned about the affairs of the archiepiscopal curia. In October 1703, the cardinal granted him a canonry in the collegiate church of San Bartolomeo in Benevento. In April 1708, he exchanged this for another in the chapter of the metropolitan cathedral, at the same time being named chancellor of the curia. He was ordained on 28 March 1705 and was appointed secretary to Cardinal Orsini, Archbishop of Benevento. In the archdiocese of Benevento, he served as master of the chamber, treasurer, apostolic visitor, archpriest, and abbot mitered of S. Lorenzo d'Aprice.He accompanied Cardinal Orsini to the conclaves of 1721 and 1724 as conclavist. When Cardinal Orsini was elected pope, Coscia followed him to Rome. On 7 June 1724, he was appointed secretary of Memorials. On 26 June 1724, Coscia was elected titular archbishop of Traianopoli and was created cardinal in the consistory of 11 June 1725. Twenty of the twenty-six cardinals present at the consistory opposed his promotion. The Pope remained unmoved, however, and promoted Archbishop Coscia to the cardinalate. On 5 September 1725, he was appointed archbishop coadjutor of Benevento with the right of succession and was put in charge of governing the archdiocese, a responsibility that was retained by Pope Benedict XIII until his death. Coscia was also appointed Protector of the Sovereign Order of Malta and the Order of the Friars Minor Conventual in 1725, and Protector of the city of Avignon and Prefect of the Congregation of Avignon in 1726.Cardinal Coscia’s conduct had created a great deal of animosity among the other members of the Sacred College of Cardinals. When Pope Benedict XIII died, Cardinal Coscia hid in Rome before fleeing to Cisterna in the fiefdom of Prince Michelangelo Gaetani, Duke of Caserta. Despite the cardinal’s behaviour, the duke gave him refuge and protection. Cardinal Coscia warned the Sacred College that the election of the new pontiff would be invalid without his vote, and he was given assurances that he would be allowed to participate in the conclave. It took him forty days to arrive in Rome with the Duke of Caserta, who accompanied him into the city until the Cardinal had securely entered the conclave. Coscia thus participated in the 1730 conclave, which elected Pope Clement XII. He resigned from the government of the archdiocese on 8 January 1731, not without protest, and sought refuge in Naples the following March, which resulted in the confiscation of all his possessions. In March 1732, he returned to Rome to face the charges against him, residing in S. Prassede while the trial was ongoing. On 9 May 1733, he was charged with extortion, forgery, and breach of trust. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and excommunication, and was ordered to pay a substantial indemnity. He was imprisoned in Castel SantìAngelo, but was treated fairly.On 23 February 1734, the same pope lifted the major excommunication penalty and restored his active voice in the July 1738 conclave.From 1735 onwards, he was permitted to visit various thermal baths to treat his gout. Following the death of Pope Clement XII, he was released and permitted to participate in the 1740 conclave, which elected Pope Benedict XIV. He retired to private life in Naples in 1741. The new pope ordered a review of the case, and on 8 January 1742 he pardoned the remaining time of his ten-year sentence, reinstated his cardinalate, and absolved him of all charges. Coscia died in Naples on 8 February 1755 (cf. F. Petrucci, Coscia, Niccolò, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 30, Rome, 1984, s.v.).

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## Bibliografia di Riferimento
Bibliography. B. Croce, Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola, in: “Aneddoti di varia letteratura”, vol. II, Naples, 1942, pp. 312-316; N. Badaloni, Introduzione a Giovanni Battista Vico, Milan, 1961, pp. 115-120; E. Grillo, Barbapiccola, Giuseppa Eleonora, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 6, Rome, 1964, s.v.; P. Findlen, Translating the New Science: Women and the Circulation of Knowledge in Enlightenment Italy, in: “Configurations 3”, no. 2, 1995, pp. 167-206; R. Messbarger, The Century of Women: Representations of Women in Eighteenth-Century Italian Public Discourse, Toronto, 2002, pp. 45-78; M. Deslauriers, Barbapiccola on Women and Philosophy, in: “Journal of the History of Ideas”, 79, no. 4, 2018, pp. 543-564; G.E. Barbapiccola, Opere scelte, C. Landolfi, ed., Salerno, 2024.Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\RMSE\008799; B. Croce-F. Nicolini, Bibliografia vichiana, Naples, 1947, I, pp. 190-91.

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