[BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX]
The first attempt at a history of Æsthetic is the work of J. Roller (see above, p. 248) mentioned by Zimmermann (Gesch. d. Ästh. pref., p. v) as being so exceedingly rare that he had never been able to see a copy of the book. We ourselves have had the good fortune to find the book in the Royal Library of Munich in Bavaria, by the help of our friend Dr. Arturo Farinelli of Innsbruck University, and to obtain the loan of it. It bears the title Entwurf | zur | Geschichte und Literatur | der Æsthetik | von Baumgarten auf die | neueste Zeit. | Herausgegeben | von | J. Koller. | Regensburg | in der Montag und Weissischen Buchhandlung | 1799 (pp. viii-107, small 8vo); in the preface the author declares his intention of supplying young men attending Lectures on the Criticism of Taste and the Theory of the Fine Arts in the German Universities with a "lucid summary of the origin and later progress of these studies," premising that he will treat of general theories only and that his judgements are frequently derived from reviews in literary periodicals. The introduction (§§ 1-7) treats of æsthetic theories from antiquity down to the beginning of the eighteenth century; Koller observes that "the names and form of a general Theory of Fine Art and Criticism of Taste were unknown to the ancients, whose imperfect ethical theory prevented their producing anything in this field." He dedicates § 5 to the Italians, "who have produced little in theory"; indeed the only Italian books mentioned are the Entusiasmo of Bettinelli and the small work of Jagemann, Saggio di buon gusto nelle belle arti ove si spiegano gli elementi dell' estetica, di Fr. Gaud. Jagemann, Regente agostiniano, In Firenze, MDCCLXXI, Presso Luigi Bastianelli e compagni; 60 pp. (concerning this, see B. Croce, Problemi di estetica, pp. 387-390). The section on the History and Literature of Æsthetic begins with the oft-quoted passage from Bülffinger ("Vellem existerent, etc.") and passes at once to Baumgarten: "the theoretical epoch owes its existence undeniably to Baumgarten; to him belongs the inalienable merit of having first conceived an Æsthetic founded on principles of reason and wholly developed, and of having tried to put it into practice by the means offered him by his own philosophy." Immediately after this, Meier is mentioned, followed by the titles, accompanied by brief extracts and remarks—a sort of catalogue raisonné—of many German books on Æsthetic from those of K. W. Müller (1759) to one by Ramier (1799), mixed with various French and English writings under the dates of their German translations. Special emphasis is laid on Kant (pp. 64-74), with the remark that, prior to the appearance of the Critique of Judgment, æstheticians were divided into sceptics, dogmatics and empiricists: the most powerful intellects of the nation inclined towards empiricism, so much so that had Kant himself "been asked by what literature he had been most strongly influenced in the development of his own thought, he would certainly have named the acute empirical writers of England, France and Germany"; but "by no pre-Kantian method had it been possible to establish an agreement (eine Einhelligkeit) between men upon matters of taste." The last pages call attention to the revival of interest in æsthetic studies, which nobody would now dare call a waste of time as in former days. "May Jacobi, Schiller and Mehmel soon enrich literature by publication of their theories!" (p. 104).
The rarity of Koller's book has led us to notice it at some length. Apart from this the first general history of Æsthetic worthy the name is that written by Robert Zimmermann, Geschichte der Ästhetik als philosophischer Wissenschaft, Vienna, 1858. It is divided into four books: "the first of these contains the history of philosophical concepts concerning the beautiful and art from the Greeks down to the constitution of Æsthetic as a philosophical science through the labours of Baumgarten"; the second runs from Baumgarten down to the reform of Æsthetic brought about by the Critique of Judgment; the third, from Kant to the Æsthetic of idealism; the fourth, from the beginnings of idealistic Æsthetic down to the author's own day (1798-1858). The work is on Herbartian lines, and is remarkable for solid research and lucid exposition, although the erroneous point of view and neglect of all æsthetic movement other than Græco-Roman or German are grave defects; besides, it is now sixty years out of date.
Less solid and more compilatory in nature, whilst retaining all the defects of the foregoing, is the history by Max Schasler, Kritische Geschichte der Ästhetik, Berlin, 1872, divided into three books treating of ancient Æsthetic and that of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The author belongs to the Hegelian school and conceives his history as a propædeutic to theory, "in order, that is, to attain a supreme principle for the construction of a new system"; he schematizes the material of facts for each period into three grades of Æsthetic of sensation (Empfindungsurtheil,) of intellect (Verstandsurtheil) and of reason (Vernunfturtheil.)
English literature has Bernard Bosanquet's History of Æsthetics, London, 1892; a sober and well-arranged work, written from an eclectic point of view between the Æsthetic of content and the Æsthetic of form. The author, however, is wrong in believing he has passed over "no writer of the first rank"; he has passed over not only writers but some important movements of ideas, and in general he shows insufficient knowledge of the literature of the Latin races. Another general history of Æsthetic in English is the first volume of The Philosophy of the Beautiful, being Outlines of the History of Æsthetics, by William Knight, London, Murray, 1895: it consists mainly of a rich collection of extracts and abridgements of ancient and modern books treating of Æsthetic. In this respect the most noteworthy chapters are those on Holland, Great Britain and America (10-13); the second volume, published in 1898, has in an appendix, pp. 251-281, notices upon Æsthetic in Russia and Denmark. Another recent publication is George Saintsbury's A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Times to the Present Day; vol. i., Edinburgh and London, 1900, concerning classical and mediæval criticism; vol. ii., 1902, criticism from the Renaissance to end of the eighteenth century: vol. iii., 1904, modern criticism. The writer of this History, equally skilled in literature and innocent of philosophy, has thought it possible to exclude æsthetic science in the strict sense, "the more transcendental Æsthetic, those ambitious theories of Beauty and artistic pleasure in general which seem so noble and fascinating until we discover them to be but cloud-appearances of Juno," and to limit his treatise to "lofty Rhetoric and Poetic, to the theory and practice of Criticism and literary taste" (book i. ch. I). Thus is produced a book instructive in many ways but wholly deficient in method and definite object. What is lofty Rhetoric and Poetic, the theory of Criticism and literary taste, if not Æsthetic pure and simple? how can the history of these be composed without due notice of metaphysical Æsthetic and other manifestations whose interaction and development are the fabric of history itself? Perhaps Saintsbury hoped to be able to write a History of Criticism as distinct from that of Æsthetic; if that be the case, he has been unsuccessful in writing either one or the other. Cf. La Critica, ii. (1904), pp. 59-63.
The generosity of the Hungarian Academy of Science has enabled us to handle the History of Æsthetic (Az Æsthetika története) of Bela Janosi, Budapesth, 1899-1901, in three volumes; the first volume treats the Æsthetic of Greece; the second, of Æsthetic from the Middle Ages to Baumgarten; the third, from Baumgarten to the present day. For us it is a book sealed with seven seals, save for reviews which have appeared in the Deutsche Litteraturzeitung of Berlin, August 25, 1900, July 12, 1902, and May 2, 1903.
Amongst Latin countries, France has no special history of Æsthetic, for this title cannot be given to the portion of the second volume (pp. 311-570) of the work by Ch. Levêque, La Science du beau (Paris, 1862), under the heading Examen des principaux systèmes d'esthétique anciens et modernes, where eight chapters are devoted to an exposition of the theories of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and St. Augustine, Hutcheson, André and Baumgarten, Reid, Kant, Schelling and Hegel. Spain, on the other hand, possesses the work of Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Historia de las idéas estéticas en España, 2nd ed., Madrid, 1890-1901 (5 vols., variously distributed amongst the 1st ed., 1883-1891, and the 2nd), which is not restricted, as the title suggests, to Spain alone or to Æsthetic alone but, as the author observes in his preface (i. pp. xx-xxi), includes the metaphysical disquisitions on the beautiful, the speculations of mystics on the beauty of God and on love; the theories of art scattered through the pages of philosophers; the æsthetic considerations found in treatises upon individual arts (Poetics and Rhetoric, works on painting, architecture, etc.); and, finally, ideas enunciated by artists concerning their own particular arts. This work is of capital importance on everything to do with Spanish authors, and also in its general part contains good treatments of matters generally passed over by historians. Menendez y Pelayo inclines to metaphysical idealism, yet seems not disinclined to welcome elements from other systems, even empirical theories: in our opinion this vagueness has an unfortunate effect on the work as a whole. Some years ago Professor V. Spinazzola announced the forthcoming publication of a course of lectures given by Francesco de Sanctis in Naples in 1845 on Storia della critica da Aristotele ad Hegel. For the history of Æsthetic in Italy cf. Alfredo Rolla, Storia delle idee estetiche in Italia, Turin, 1904; on which see Croce, Problemi di estetica, pp. 401-415.
We need take no notice of the historical remarks or chapters that generally stand at the beginning of treatises on Æsthetic; the most important occur in the volumes of Solger, Hegel and Schleiermacher. A general history of Æsthetic, from the rigorous point of view of the principle of Expression, has not been attempted before the present work.
For the bibliography down to the end of the eighteenth century, Sulzer's Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste, 2nd ed., with additions by von Blankenburg, Leipzig, 1792, in four volumes, is practically complete and is an inexhaustible mine of information. For the nineteenth century much material is collected by C. Mills Gayley and Fred Newton Scott in An Introduction to the Methods and Materials of Literary Criticism. The Bases in Æsthetics and Poetics, Boston, 1899. Besides Sulzer, we may mention æsthetic dictionaries by Gruber, Wörterbuch z. Behuf d. Ästh. d. schönen Künste, Weimar, 1810: Jeithles, Ästhetisches Lexikon, vol. i. A-K, Vienna, 1835: Hebenstreit, Encyklopädie d. Ästhetik, 2nd ed., Vienna, 1848.