Abstract
THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT OF SPINOZA’S ETHICA
S u m m a r y
The article focuses on Spinoza’s manuscript found in The Vatican Apostolic Library and
published by L. Spruit and P. Totaro in the book The Vatican Manuscript of Spinoza’s Ethica
(2011). The identification of the text became possible as the result of their arduous research in
which the name of a Danish scientist N. Stensen, the author of several letters usually published in
the collections of Spinoza’s letters, played a crucial part. The manuscript Vat. Lat. 12 838 is the
only known editorial copy of Spinoza’s manuscripts and its origins are dated as early as 1675, i.e.
before the publication of Opera posthuma. The comparison of its contents with the Ethics, published
in 1677, points to many differences, most of which are typical mistakes, occurring probably
either in Spinoza’s manuscript, or in the editorial copy, or else made by the typesetter and not
expunged during the editorial proofreading. However, the editors emphasize the importance of
some substantive differences of the text for the interpretation of Spinoza’s Ethics. The history of
the manuscript and the circumstance it found its way to the library of The Holy Office and thence
to the Vatican Apostolic Library enabled the editors to put forward some hypotheses concerning
the circulation of Spinoza’s manuscripts in the period when the censure was issued against him
after the publication of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.