Journal of the History of Philosophy

112 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY the work collated by Fantazzi, and her statement that the Mayas edition "accurately reproduces the first (Srlestat) edition" (p. xii) does not square with the variants listed by Fantazzi. On the other hand, Fantazzi's collation does little to improve the text and primarily shows the number of slips in the Srlestat edition. On the whole, both translations are accurate, though the precise meaning of some of the examples of medieval sophisms is extremely difficult to render accurately. Fantazzi's translation reads a little more smoothly, though there are numerous passages where Guerlac's is preferable, and, on balance, she may capture more of the technical nuances. It is good that the Latin text has been reproduced, for there are many passages that are very puzzling and not easy to interpret. As far as the introduction and notes are concerned, Guerlac is to be preferred. She does a much better job of filling in the background necessary for understanding the work, and she has identified more diligently the sources and quotations found in the text. What is more, the additional contemporary material she prints sheds a good deal of light on the In pseudodialecticos. She gives a detailed exposition of Valla and Italian humanism and seems aware of the difference between the logic of Aristotle and that of the late Middle Ages. Neither is completely up to date on recent work on fifteenth-century logic, and it is surprising that more attention was not given to the studies of E. J. Ashworth, especially her Language and Logic in the Post-Medieval Period (1974). Guerlac provides a more useful bibliography and a fuller index. Regardless of minor shortcomings, these volumes show clearly just how important Vives was during the period that saw the real crisis of "medieval" method. It was during his lifetime that several aspects of medieval philosophy died out. He was a generation younger than Archillini, Nifo, and Pomponazzi, who in certain ways marked the end of medieval Aristotelianism, and of Erasmus, Luther, Agrippa and Gianfrancesco Pico, who represented new tendencies that were to dominate the sixteenth century. The texts discussed here show a keen and lively mind, which has perhaps been underestimated. Is it too much to suggest that he be considered in the same league as Erasmus and Thomas More? From the brief section of his De causis corruptarum artium reprinted and analyzed by Guedac it can be seen that the work is in need of reevaluation, preferably as part of the same critical tendency moving in the direction of skepticism that is to be found in G. F. Pico and Agrippa. In summary, Guerlac's volume is in most respects preferable to Fantazzi's, though her failure to provide an improved Latin text makes it necessary to consult both. Why both should work on the same text is difficult to understand, when there are still so many other important and interesting texts to study and translate. Fantazzi published a preliminary version of his translation in 1972, and both drew upon the expertise of the same well-known historian of medieval logic. Could they have really been unaware of each other's project? Had the two pooled their knowledge and resources, we certainly would have had something better than they produced separately. Can such duplication of effort be anything but wasteful? CrO,RLt~SB. SCHMITT The Warburg Institute Gustavo Costa. Le antichitd germaniche nella cultura italiana da Machiavelli a Vico. Naples: Bibliopolis, 1977. Pp. 389. Gustavo Costa's work treats significant aspects of Italian culture from Machiavelli to Vico. Among his topics are politics, history, and the ethics and aesthetics expressed in writings of that lengthy period. Costa's subject matter is the reality and legend that influenced German antiquity within the conquered Roman empire. The Northern European tribes were irreducibly anti-Roman BOOK REVIEWS 113 in character. Their culture, nevertheless, had a deep effect upon Italy, augmented by both political and aesthetic needs. Costa looks for traces of German antiquity in the texts of Italian humanists. For the writings of Flavio Biondo and Enea Silvi Piccolomini, in particular, discuss the rapproachment between the fundamentally diverse Roman and German cultures. The results of...