Bibliographical Note
Croce’s Complete Works form a collection of twenty-eight volumes, in four distinct series, published by Laterza e Figli, of Bari, who are also the publishers of La Critica, and of the following collections initiated or directed by Croce: Scrittori d’Italia, Scrittori Stranieri, Classici della Filosofia Moderna.
We give here a full list of the Opere di Benedetto Croce, adding to the title of each volume the year of the last available edition, the years of their composition having already been indicated in the text:
Filosofia dello Spirito (“Philosophy of the Spirit”):
Vol. I, Estetica, 1912. (Translated under the tide of “Æsthetic.”)
Vol. II, Logica, 1917. (Translated under the tide of “Logic.”)
Vol. III, Filosofia della Pratica, 1915. (Translated under the tide of “The Philosophy of the Practical: Economics and Ethics.”)
Vol. IV, Teoria e Storia della Storiografia, 1920. (Translated under the tide of “Theory and History of Historiography” in England, and under the ride of “History: Its Theory and Practice” in the United States.)
Saggi filosofici (“Philosophical Essays”):
Vol. I, Problemi di Estetica, 1910 (“Problems of Æsthetics.”)
Vol. II, La Filosofia di Giambattista Fico, 1911. (Translated under the title of “The Philosophy of Vico.”)
Vol. III, Saggio sullo Hegel, 1913. (“Essay on Hegel,” followed by essays on the history of philosophy; the essay on Hegel translated under the tide of “What Is Living and What Is Dead in the Philosophy of Hegel.”)
Vol. IV, Materialismo Storico ed economia marxistica, 1918. (Translated under the title of “Historical Materialism and Marxian Economics.”)
Vol. V, Nuovi Saggi di Estetica, 1920. (“New Essays on Æsthetics”; contains the Breviario di Estetica, translated under the title of “The Essence of Æsthetics.”)
Vol. VI, Frammenti di Etica, 1922. (“Fragments of Ethics.”)
Scritti di Storia letteraria e politica. (“Writings on Literary and Political History”):
Vol. I, Saggi sulla Letteratura italiana del Seicento, 1911. (“Essays on Italian Literature in the Seventeenth Century.”)
Vol. II, La Rivoluzione napoletana del 1799, 1912. (“The Neapolitan Revolution of 1799.”)
Vols. III-VI, La Letteratura della nuova Italia, 1914-15. “(The Literature of the New Italy.”)
Vol. VII, I Teatri di Napoli, 1916. (“The Theatres of Naples.”)
Vol. VIII, La Spagna nella Vita italiana durante la Rinascenza, 1917. (“Spain in Italian Life during the Renaissance.”)
Vols. IX-X, Conversazioni critiche, 1918. (“Critical Conversations.”)
Vol. XI, Storie e leggende napoletane, 1919. (“Historical Tales and Legends of Naples.”)
Vol. XII, Goethe, 1919.
Vol. XIII, Una Famiglia di Patrioti, 1919. (“A Family of Patriots”; includes essays on Francesco de Sanctis.)
Vol. XIV, Ariosto, Shakespeare e Corneille, 1920. (Translated under the title of “Ariosto, Shakespeare, and Corneille.”)
Vols. XV-XVI, Storia della Storiografia italiana, 1920. (“The History of Italian Historiography.”)
Vol. XVII, La Poesia di Dante, 1921. (“The Poetry of Dante.”)
Scritti varii. (“Miscellaneous Writings”):
Vol. I, Primi Saggi, 1919. (“Early Essays.”)
The following volumes are not included in the Laterza edition of Croce’s works:
Cultura e vita morale, Bari, 1914. (“Culture and Moral Life.”) Aneddoti e profili settecenteschi, Palermo, 1914. (“Anecdotes and Profiles of the Eighteenth Century.”)
Contributo alla critica di me stesso, Naples, 1918. (“Contribution to a Criticism of Myself”; one hundred copies printed for private distribution.)
Curiosità storiche, Naples, 1920. (“Historical Curiosities.”)
Pagine Sparse, edited by G. Castellano, Naples, 1919-1920. (“Scattered Pages,” consisting of Pagine di letteratura e di cultura, 2 vols.; Pagine sulla guerra; and Memorie, scritti biografici e appunti storici.)
A complete bibliography, cataloguing the whole of Croce’s multifarious activity, is outside the scope of this note. The nearest approach to it can be found in G. Castellano’s Introduzione alle opere di B. Croce, Bari, 1920, which contains, besides, a full list of translations in eight languages, a bibliography of the Italian and foreign critical literature on Croce, and a very useful series of abstracts of discussions and judgments on Croce’s work.
Besides articles and essays in American and English magazines and reviews, the following works of Croce have been translated into English: the four volumes of the Filosofia dello Spirito, the essay on Hegel, the Essence of Æsthetics, and the essays on Ariosto, Shakespeare, and Corneille, by Douglas Ainslie; the essay on Vico, by R. G. Collingwood, and the essays on Historical Materialism, by C. M. Meredith. But the English or American student of Croce ought to rely as little as possible on translations; the reading of the Italian text will be found comparatively easy, on the basis of a good acquaintance with Latin or with French. The labour entailed by the surmounting of the first difficulties will be largely repaid by the advantages gained in coming into direct contact with Croce’s thought, and by the acquisition of at least a reading knowledge of Italian.
For the vast critical literature on Croce, scattered through the literary and philosophical reviews of Europe and of America during the last twenty years, we are compelled again to refer the reader to Castellano’s book. We shall only mark out Croce’s own autobiographical notes, the Contributo listed above, which, however, having been printed for private circulation only, is not generally accessible except in the French translation printed in the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, XXVI, pp. 1-40. The following are the only books which give a general view of Croce’s thought: G. Prezzolini, Benedetto Croce, Naples, 1909; E. Chiocchetti, La filosofia di B. Croce, Florence, 1915; H. Wildon Carr, The Philosophy of B. Croce, London, 1917. The first is an able, but very cursory sketch; the second examines Croce’s philosophy from the standpoint of neoscholasticism; the third is an ample summary written by a distinguished writer well acquainted with the various currents of modern thought. Each of them ought to be read with a critical and discriminating eye.
In the English-speaking world, Croce’s fame rests emphatically on his æsthetics, and its applications to literary criticism. His influence on English and American critical thought has already gone much deeper than a mere list of writings on his theories would show; especially in England, his ideas are, so to speak, in the air, and appear in many writers who have no direct knowledge of his work. The best exposition of this phase of his philosophy is to be found in E. F. Carritt’s book, The Theory of Beauty, 1914, chap. XIV. The writings of A. B. Walkley, and of J. E. Spingam, contain the most vigorous prosecution of his thought as applied, respectively, to English and to American scholarship and criticism.
For the general history of Italian thought, to which many a reference is made in the course of this book, the best helps, besides Croce’s essay on Vico, and B. Spaventa, La filosofia italiana, recently reprinted, Bari, 1909, are the historical works of Giovanni Gentile, and especially his Storia della filosofia italiana, Milano, n. d. Gentile is one of the most profound and earnest modern European thinkers, and it is desirable that his theoretical works, similar in tendency to, but widely divergent in temper from those of Croce, should become better known to the Anglo-Saxon world. Two of his books, La Riforma dell’ Educazione and Teoria generale dello Spirito, are soon to appear in English. Croce’s judgment on Gentile’s Actual Idealism is expressed in Una discussione tra filosofi amici, in Conversazioni Critiche, II, pp. 67-95. But a complete understanding of the vital relations between the two thinkers can be gathered only through an adequate knowledge of both Croce’s and Gentile’s work.