ABSTRACT
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries occupy a special place in the renewed interest in the history o f linguistic thought. Indeed, in the last few decades a large number o f studies and explorations, and o f editions and translations o f texts,1 have concentrated on these two centuries. In this w ay much new knowledge has been accumulated, which now enables us to write a history o f thought and o f linguistic research o f this period significantly different from that offered in previous histories o f linguistics.2
