Abstract

This article examines the question of allegory in Vico. While there have been some attempts to read the New Science as an allegory, little attention has been paid to what Vico himself meant by the term ‘allegory’. In fact, Vico complicates things by referring to two types of allegory: the philosophical allegory and the true poetic allegory. While the former term refers to the mode of signification of the age of man or the third age, the latter term has to do with the poetic characters that Vico ascribes to the divine or first age. Vico further emphasizes the difference between the two types of allegory by calling (or translating) the true poetic allegory “diversiloquium.” Through a careful reading of this unusual translation of the term ‘allegory’, this inquiry suggests a surprising relation between the mode of signification of poetic characters (allegory) and Vico’s philosophy of history.