Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/637

 GIOCONDO

563

GIOCONDO

passed in study, he died. In 1851 he published his " Rinnovamento civile d'ltalia" which contains an im- passioned criticism of political events from 1848 on- wards. This last book, while it clings to the idea of a federated Italy, .shows that Gioberti was a republican, and that he hoped the loss of the papal temporal power would bring about the religious renovation of Italy. Thereupon all his works were put on the In- dex. His closing years were embittered by seeing his hopes shattered, and this bitterness finds an echo in his works.

Gioberti's philosophy is a mixture of pantheistic ontologism with Platonism and traditionalism. The ontologism of Malebranche, as modified by Cardinal Gerdil, had been taught him at the Turin University. His first principle is that the primum cognilum of the human intellect is idea or being; i. e., absolute and eternal truth as far as "human intuition" can grasp it is God Himself. "Being" he calls the primum philo- sophicum, because in the mental order it is the primum pKijchologicum, and in the order of existing things it is the primum onlologicum; it is the common foundation of all reality and all knowledge. Intuition of being embraces the judgment, "being exists or is neces- sarily", which is not the result of any mental process, but is the spontaneous effect produced when being presents itself to the mind. But in being we merely see its relative attributes, not its es.sence, which remains unknown (the superintelligible) and is the object of revealed religion. Among these relative attributes is comprised the creative act, by intuition of which, in being, we arrive at a knowledge of its re- sults, namely, contingent things, and thus establish the formula idealis, "bemg creates existing things", ens creat existenhas. This judgment is synthetical a priori, not in the Kantian sense, but by " objective synthesis " resulting from the revelation of being. However, in- tuition of the idea remains too indeterminate; and hence the necessity of speech which so circumscribes the idea that we can contemplate or re-think it (this is pure traditionalism).

His theory of creation is the most important part of his system and requires a longer explanation. He calls the idea also the Esse Universale, which is com- mon to and identical in all things, and which is nothing more or loss than their possibility itself. Before the creation the idea (being, God) is universalis and ab- stract. It becomes concrete by its own act, individu- ating itself, making itself finite, and multiplying it- self. "To create is therefore to individuate." In this process the intelligible that was absolute becomes relative; there are two cycles to the process, one descending, inasmuch as the idea infringes on the concrete (mimesis), the other ascending, inasmuch as it reaches out more and more towards the intelligible absolute (meihexis), and participates of the Divine Being (this is pure Platonism). Thus he arrives at the conclusion that in the intellectual order the ideas of created things are so many steps in the scale of the Divine Essence. And as regards creation, he adopts the saying of Hegel that " logic ... is nothing but creation". From all this, Gioberti's pantheism is evident. No doubt he is always asserting that God was distinct from His creatures; but the sincerity of these statements is not beyond question. As a matter of fact, after his separation from the Mazzin- ians they published a letter of his to the "Giovane Italia" in which he expressly stated that "pantheism is the only true and sound philosophy". His theory of mimesis and methexis is also used to prove the im- mortality of the soul. Then again the idea of being is made the foundation of moral obligation as a binding force, and, inasmuch as it approves or disapproves, we have the concepts of merit and demerit. The aim of the moral law is to bring to pass the perfect union of existences and being, in other words to complete the methexic cycle. Man endowed with freedom can ap-

proach or keep away from being; hence the origin of evil; and when such aversion from being is endless it becomes necessary and immanent. Later, however, recognizing that this would be an exception to the "logical" law of methexis, he denied this eternal im- manence of evil.

It is noteworthy that, in politics, he denied the sovereignty of the people. In Gioberti's theory the object of religion is the supernatural and the superin- telligible, which meant according to him the essence of being revealed by means of speech. On the other hand he treats at length of the harmony between reli- gion and science or civilization. But as a rule all his vague theorizing was tinged with rationalism, and even in his latest works he writes: "science and civili- zation must go on throwing light on what is supernat- ural and superintelligible in religion"; and again, "modern rationahsm is destined to bring about the union of orthodoxy and science". His philosophical works are: "Teorica del sovrannaturale" (1838; 2nd ed., with repUes to critics, 1850); "Introduzione alio studio della filosofia" (1840); "Lettere sugli errori politico-religiosi di Lamennais" (1840); "Del Bello" and "Del Buono" (1841); "Errori filosofici di Anto- nio Rosmini" (1842). Mention should also be made of his posthumous works: "RiformaCattolica"; "Filo- sofia della Rivelazione"; "Protologia". His com- plete works in thirty-five volumes were published at Naples, in 1877.

NIassari, Ricordi e Carteggio di V. Gioberti (Turin, 1860); Mauri, Della vita e delle opere di Gioberti (Genoa, 18531; Spa- VENTA, La filosofia di Gioberti (Naples, 1S64); Civiltii Cattolica, II, Ser. IV, 143; HI, Ser. IV, 481, 641, Ser. V, 280; Liberatohb, Delia conoscenza intellettuale (Naples, 1879), I, ii.

\J. Benigni.

Giocondo, Fra Giovanni, Italian architect, anti- quary, archipologist, and classical scholar, b. in Ver- ona, c. 1445; d. in Venice (?), c. 1525. He became a Dominican at the age of eighteen and was one of the many of that order who became pioneers of the Renaissance; afterwards, however, he entered the Franciscan Order. Giocondo began his career as a teacher of Latin and Greek in Verona where Scaliger was one of his pupils. The young priest, a learned archajologist and a superb draughtsman, early visited Rome, sketched its ancient buildings, wrote the story of its great monuments, and completed and explained many defaced inscriptions. He stimulated the re- vival of classical learning by making collections of ancient MSS., one of which, completed in 1492, he presented to Lorenzo de' Medici. Giocondo soon returned to his native town where he built bridges and planned fortifications for Treviso, acting as architect, engineer, and even head-builder during the construc- tion. The most beautiful building in Verona and one of the most perfect in all Europe, the Palazzo del Consiglio, the decorations of whose loggia are famous, was designed by Giocondo at the request of Emperor Maximilian, and de Quincey attributes also the church of Santa Maria della Scala to him. Venice then sum- moned him with other celebrated architects to discuss the protection of the lagoons against the rivers ; Gio- condo's plan of altering the Brenta's bed and leading this river to the sea was accepted by the Venetians, and the undertaking was a complete success.

Between 1496 and 1499 Giocondo was invited to France by the king, and made royal architect. There he built two bridges of remarkable beauty, the Pont Notre-Dame and the Petit Pont, and designed the palace of the Chambre des Comptes, the Golden Room of the Parliament, and the Chateau of Gaillon (Nor- mandy), one fai^ade of which has been removed to the Ecole des Beaux Arts to serve as a model for students of architecture. In France Giocondo discovered a manuscript of Pliny the Younger, containing his cor- respondence with Trajan. He published this in Paris, dedicating the work to Louis XII. Between 1506 and