DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0317
NEAPOLITAN ART AND LETTERS.
259
“Telesio and Campanella, long before Bacon, founded em-
pirical science. Campanella and Bruno, long before Descartes,
established the principle of idealistic philosophy in the self-
conscious thinking faculty of man. The sensualism of Telesio,
the spiritualism of Bruno, and Campanella’s dualism fore-
shadow all possible secrets of empiricists, rationalists, and
eclectics, which have since divided the field of modern specu-
lation. It is easy enough now to look down either from the
height of full-blown transcendental metaphysics or from the
more modest eminence of solid physical science upon the intel-
lectual abortions generated by this potent conception in its
earliest fusion with mediaeval theology. Yet it is impossible to
neglect the negative importance of the work effected by men
who declared their independence of ecclesiastical and classical
authority in an age when the Church and antiquity contended
for the empire of the human reason. Still less possible is it to
deny the place of Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Spinoza, among
the offspring begotten of the movement which Pomponazzi,
Telesio, Campanella, and Bruno inaugurated and developed.”
I have hastily outlined the literature of Southern Italy
during the awakening which gradually followed the reign
of William I., died out, was again vivified, and culminated
in the height of the fifteenth century. The political history
of the Neapolitans after this period has shown us a con-
dition of life, from the highest to the lowest classes, that
forbade an intellectual growth, — a condition in which
learning and literature could find no nourishment.
After the middle of the fifteenth century, when Alfonso
the Magnanimous shed an unwonted lustre on his office
and his kingdom, the prestige of Naples was gradually
lessened until she was but a scorn and a byword among
the nations. We have seen how her rulers, her clergy, her
nobles, and her soldiers were wanting in patriotism and
religion; how the oppression of the people and the self-
indulgence of the nobles wrought their deadly work, until
Naples might well be described by the five potent words
259
“Telesio and Campanella, long before Bacon, founded em-
pirical science. Campanella and Bruno, long before Descartes,
established the principle of idealistic philosophy in the self-
conscious thinking faculty of man. The sensualism of Telesio,
the spiritualism of Bruno, and Campanella’s dualism fore-
shadow all possible secrets of empiricists, rationalists, and
eclectics, which have since divided the field of modern specu-
lation. It is easy enough now to look down either from the
height of full-blown transcendental metaphysics or from the
more modest eminence of solid physical science upon the intel-
lectual abortions generated by this potent conception in its
earliest fusion with mediaeval theology. Yet it is impossible to
neglect the negative importance of the work effected by men
who declared their independence of ecclesiastical and classical
authority in an age when the Church and antiquity contended
for the empire of the human reason. Still less possible is it to
deny the place of Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Spinoza, among
the offspring begotten of the movement which Pomponazzi,
Telesio, Campanella, and Bruno inaugurated and developed.”
I have hastily outlined the literature of Southern Italy
during the awakening which gradually followed the reign
of William I., died out, was again vivified, and culminated
in the height of the fifteenth century. The political history
of the Neapolitans after this period has shown us a con-
dition of life, from the highest to the lowest classes, that
forbade an intellectual growth, — a condition in which
learning and literature could find no nourishment.
After the middle of the fifteenth century, when Alfonso
the Magnanimous shed an unwonted lustre on his office
and his kingdom, the prestige of Naples was gradually
lessened until she was but a scorn and a byword among
the nations. We have seen how her rulers, her clergy, her
nobles, and her soldiers were wanting in patriotism and
religion; how the oppression of the people and the self-
indulgence of the nobles wrought their deadly work, until
Naples might well be described by the five potent words