'E io in Napoli vidi un cane polacco'. Ancora sui linguaggi animali, da Gesner a Campanella

Beginning with Campanella's Del senso delle cose e della magia, this paper offers a summary view of the issue of animal language from ca. 1550 to 1637 when Descartes' Discours de la méthode was published. It summarizes three philosophical orientations: the concept of vis aestimativa developed by Thomas Aquinas and followers (animal mind and communication is a matter of instinct); the naturalistic position based on Aristotle's biological works and on Plutarch and Porphyrius (animals display intelligence and communication); Montaigne's radical approach (animal and human language are a kind of continuum). Campanella took sides with the naturalistic party, admitting that animals share discourse capacities, although on a limited scale. His position is compared to the traditional stance taken by Angelo Rocca (1591) and to the experimental approach of Fabrici of Acquapendente (1603).