ABSTRACT
Nevertheless, as Garin informs us,4 Høffding’s article-as well as the chapter on Kierkegaard in his History of Modern Philosophy, which was translated into Italian in the same year5-was not exactly the first appearance of Kierkegaard in Italy. The first treatment of the Danish philosopher dates back to 1904, even if it was only
published in 1906. It was an essay with which the scholar Giovanni Calò (18821970) won the competition announced by the “Reale Accademia di Scienze Morali e Politiche” of the “Società Reale” in Naples. The competition was for an essay on ethical individualism in the nineteenth century: the winners were Giovanni Calò and another scholar, Giovanni Vidari (1871-1934).6 Calò knew Kierkegaard’s works through the first German translations by Schrempf and through the contributions of Høffding. It is interesting to note the report that the philosopher Filippo Masci wrote for the Academy about Calò’s essay:
The knowledge of the existence of this text is remarkable for several reasons. First, it shows that there was an acquaintance with Kierkegaard in Italy before 1906, but at the same time it confirms the mediating role of Høffding in it, or at least the role of the German cultural milieu.8 Second, it shows how from the beginning the figure of Kierkegaard was connected with a kind of individualistic philosophical perspective, as it was in all the early readings of the Dane’s philosophy in Italy, at least until the end of the 1930s. At that point, Kierkegaard was associated with the existentialist perspectives of Luigi Pareyson (1918-91), Enzo Paci (1911-76) or Nicola Abbagnano (1901-90), as we shall see.
