Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) spent his entire life in Naples, where he taught at the University of Naples from 1699, the year he won the Chair of Rhetoric and Forensic Eloquence, to 1741, the year Gennaro Vico, his son, took over the duty of lecturer. Giorgio Pinton earned his B.A. in philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy of Gallarate, Italy, 1955, and his Ph.D. in Renaissance and Reformation Studies from the Hartford Seminary Foundation in 1972. With the late Richard E. Weingart, he prepared The Logic of Divine Love: A Critical Analysis of the Soteriology of Peter Abailard (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1970). He taught at Laconia State School in New Hampshire, then philosophy at the University of Hartford from 1969 to 1976. Thereafter, having obtained a Master in Secondary Education from the University of Hartford, he taught within the Connecticut Correctional School District until his retirement in 1992. With Arthur W. Shippee, he translated Vico's inaugural orations, a book published by Cornell University Press, in 1993, with the title On Humanistic Education, and Vico's Institutiones Oratoriae, a book published by Editions Rodopi, B. V. in 1996, with the title The Art of Rhetoric. With Pierre Wolff, he translated The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, A New Translation from the Authorized Latin Text, a book by A Triumph Classic, in 1998. Margaret Diehl has a B.A. from Earlham College and a Master in Primary Education from the University of Hartford. She worked in New York City and Boston, teaching the unteachable. For twenty years, she taught English as a Second Language within the Connecticut Correctional School District. She retired from teaching in May 1998. However, she is continuing to direct the highly successful Drama Program: it consists of a selected group of prisoners, who, after having been properly trained, visit schools and other youth organizations, to give witness to young audiences that drugs and crime destroy happiness and satisfaction in life.
