Grotius and Campanella : a footnote to Luigi Firpo

Abstract

In his edition of Aforismi politici, Firpo included the text of Hugo Grotius’s observations on Campanella’s work. Part of the introduction to the volume is devoted to the complex and intertwined questions pertaining to the version of the aphorisms Grotius might have read and to when he might have penned his observations. While Firpo found little help in « only two and minor » references to Campanella in the Dutch scholar’s epistolary, this ‘footnote’ corroborates his conclusion on the dating of the Observata by referring to four other letters mentioning the Calabrian philosopher. The letters do not answer the question as to whether the two luminaries had ever met, but they do shed light on Grotius’s previously overlooked acquaintance with Campanella’s life and activities.