Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History

Chapter 12: Antonio Genovesi (1713–1769)

12 R Antonio Genovesi ( 17 13 –17 6 9 ) Reform through Commerce and Renewed Natural Law NICCoLò GUAStI the eldest of four brothers, Antonio Genovesi was born on 1 November 1713 at Castiglione, a little village near Salerno in the kingdom of Naples, to a landowning family of modest means (Venturi 1962, 43–44, 47–83; zambelli 1972, 797–860; Perna 1999). Antonio’s father pointed his son toward an ecclesiastical career, and after he had completed his initial studies in rhetoric and humanities, a family relative in the medical profession introduced him to the study of scholasticism and Cartesianism. the Early years Antonio spent his early years reading the works of the Renaissance historians and humanists, such as Dante (1265–1321) and Petrarch 269 270 Niccolò Guasti (1304–1374), along with tales of medieval chivalry (Venturi 1962, 48–49). Genovesi also developed a passion for Cartesian geometry, as well as theology and metaphysics. the authors who influenced him most during this training period, other than René Descartes (1596–1650), were Melchior Cano (1509–1560), Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715), and François Lamy (1636–1711). After Genovesi received minor orders, he became, at the age of twenty-four years, professor of rhetoric at the seminary of Salerno, where he taught for two years, and then in December of 1737, he was ordained a priest. Some months later, he moved to Naples with one of his brothers, and there he attended the lectures of Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) and met Paolo Doria (1662–1746). In 1739, while still in Naples, he started a private school in which he taught theology, philosophy , and ethics, and developed a teaching style that exemplified his pedagogical vision. Genovesi’s lectures became so famous in the kingdom of Naples that Major Chaplain (Cappellano Maggiore) Celestino Galiani (1681–1753), responsible for the direction of the university , wanted to meet him. Galiani was the protagonist of the revival of studies in southern Italy, founder of the Academy of Sciences in 1732, who had emerged as an important popularizer of Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), Locke (1632–1704), Newton (1642–1727), the Utilitarians , and the British deists. In his capacity as headmaster of the University of Naples, he reformed the curriculum and introduced the teaching of natural sciences and experimental physics (Ajello 1976; Ferrone 1982; 2007, 111–72; Stapelbroek 2008, 56–87, 127–64). thanks to Galiani’s intervention, Genovesi was appointed extraordinary professor of metaphysics at the University of Naples in 1741. Four years later, he acquired the position of professor of ethics, thereby substantially increasing the number of students that attended his lectures. During the 1740s, Genovesi devoted himself to the research of a systematic rationalism, capable of identifying the links between theology , metaphysics, and physics; this research pushed him toward adopting an eclectic-syncretic method and a comprehensive cultural perspective. Besides his antipathy toward the scholastic tradition and his initial sympathy for the Cartesian method, he profoundly admired the Cambridge Platonists, the empiricism of Bacon (1561–1626) Antonio Genovesi (1713–1769) 271 and Locke, and the Lockean and Newtonian orientation of much Anglo-Dutch culture. Genovesi additionally read and admired the works of Jean Le Clerc (1657–1737), Peter van Muschenbroek (1692–1761), Samuel Clark (1675–1729), thomas Woolston (1670–1733), and Arthur Ashley Sykes (1684–1756), in addition to texts of Cocceius (1603–1669), Christian Wolff (1679–1754), G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716), Johann Franz Budde (1667–1729), Gilbert Burnet (1634–1715), and William Whiston (1667–1752). Genovesi’s acquaintance with Newton’s works, particularly with the Mathematical Principles (Principia mathematica philosophiae naturalis ; 1687) and the Opticks (1696), became important because they provided Genovesi with a key to understanding the functioning of nature and human psychology. Moreover, Newtonian methods and ideas, which Genovesi knew from reading Voltaire’s (1694–1778) works, including the Métaphysique de Newton (1741), stimulated his interest in physics, theology, and ethics (zambelli 1972, 1978). Equally important for Genovesi was his encounter during the 1740s with the works of the European natural law thinkers, especially thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke, Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694), Richard Cumberland (1631–1718), Christian thomasius (1655–1728), Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744), Johann Heinecke (1681–1741), Jean J. Burlamaqui (1694–1748), and Jacob Friedrich Bielfeld (1717–1770). Genovesi also became interested in debates surrounding the works of Benedict Spinoza (1632–1677) and the British deists, in particular John toland (1670–1722...