Scientific Fact between New Science and scienza nuova: Giambattista Vico’s factum and John Toland’s Matter of Fact

The article deals with the syncretic construction of fact which took shape in Early Modern Times at an intersection of biblical exegesis, political science, esthetics, historiography and natural sciences epistemology. The study attempts a comparative analysis of Giambattista Vico’s ‘new science’ and John Toland’s ‘travesty philosophy’, outlining shared reference points and structural similarities in their political epistemology: procedure of the authorization of facts, modal implications of the fact, economy of political dissimulation