on Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
vicus
Discovered in p3:
a commodius vicus of recirculation...
Humpty Dumpty says:
“A vicus, at first, is a village or settlement in the Roman Empire; in the political sense, it was the smallest unit of their municipal administration. Joyce gives more senses to this word. The Vico Road in Dublin is one of commodius streets (= a commodius vicus); & a street, which can be called a “commodius vicus” in Joycean or Joynglish, is found everywhere every time in his views;. & moreover, he has hidden the name of the Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico in this word. His 18th century publication NewsScience puts forth a famous theory of the cyclical nature of history.”
