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Il giudice di se stesso … Naples, Gaetano Tardano, 1793. [bound with]: Il conoscitore del mondo …

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Two very uncommon works on philosophical and legal themes by the Neapolitan lawyer and judge Vito Giordano.

The first, which had appeared in a first edition the previous year, offers a series of reflections on the qualities required of a judge, inspired by the recently imposed Codice leuciano of 1789, which established a legal code for the workers’ village established around the new silk factory at San Leucio in Caserta. Giordano divides his work into sections on self-knowledge, knowledge of God, and the knowledge of individuals, and then the judge’s duties to these three, and how these duties should be acted upon. After each section, Giordano offers a short ‘flight of fantasy’ to illustrate his arguments.

In the second work, here in first edition, Giordano expands on the themes of the first in more general terms, reflecting on the nature of political progress, the role of monarchy and government, theories of education, and the place of education, religion, and philosophy in a properly functioning society and state. Both works are dedicated to Francesco Pignatelli, prince of Strongoli.

OCLC records only the first edition of the first work (at the Library of Congress) and one copy of the second, at the Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma.

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