XVII Century Naples

Besides its historical intent, this work stems from my profound admiration for the cartographer as a human agent and from my innate interest in cartography and for every representation of the environment, filtered and enlivened by the human mind. I was a draftsman and map compiler like many others; my interest in cartographic drafting preceded that of writing, and unexplained factors have led me in recent years to deepen my interest in the historical aspects of cartography.
With this compilation, I pay a debt of gratitude-which we all have-toward a neglected and forgotten band of graphic artists, seldom praised then as now, and forgotten by the official history of great events and historical figures. Topographers, makers of ephemeral images, continually overcome by human actions, never rose to the fame of artists or scientists, except in the rarest cases. And yet these men constructed the image of our country; we have used and abused their maps to modify the environment in which we live.
Maps, like the air we breathe or the water we drink, seem to belong to that category of objects whose existence is not even discussed; we appreciate their importance only when they are missing, and we tend to forget that men and institutions have
been heavily involved in their production for time immemorial.
Mapping is like Penelope' s tapestry or the rock of Sisyphus. It is never completed; as the completion nears it becomes apparent that little has been achieved because everything has to be redone.
The information revolution is at the door, and before making the ultimate step to abandon the analogue image for the digitaI image, let us stop for a moment to acknowledge those who have preceded us.

Si delinea il profilo biografico della gentildonna napoletana Beatrice Ottinelli mettendone anche in luce l'effettivo ruolo avuto nelle vicende legate alla commissione della statua lignea dell'Assunta, opera realizzata da Aniello Stellato per l'Università di Fondi e destinata alla collegiata di S. Maria in Piazza.

Recientemente hemos descubierto la firma y la data del San Miguel venciendo al mal y del San Jorge y el dragón, dos de las cuatro magníficas esculturas de origen napolitano custodiadas en la sacristía de la iglesia de la colegiata del Santo Sepulcro de Calatayud. Este hecho nos permite engrosar sobremanera el breve catálogo artístico del escultor de Nápoles Jacobo Bonavita en nuestro país, hasta el momento limitado al Cristo de la Agonía de Urbasa, en la actualidad conservado en el Museo de Navarra en Pamplona.
En este texto realizamos el análisis artístico de ambas piezas, su estudio iconográfico y la revisión de sus posibles modelos en el contexto de la escultura napolitana del momento. Además, aclaramos y documentamos quién fue su propietario y cómo llegaron estas bellas obras a la iglesia del Santo Sepulcro de Calatayud.

Indice del volume
I. InEuropa p.3
II. Continuità e discontinuità nelle strategie urbane p. 11
III. Lacartografia:
utilità, tecnica, bellezza e propaganda p.18
IV. Città barocca, città moderna p.22
Scheda: Roma, p. 29
V. Le città capitali p.35
VI. L’impero spagnolo p.42
Scheda: Napoli, p. 48
VII. La frammentarietà del Sacro Romano Impero p.52
Schede: Vienna, p. 58 - Varsavia, p. 61
VIII.Le capitali del Nord Europa p.63
Scheda: Amsterdam, p. 69
IX. L’Inghilterra: tra monarchia assoluta
e governo costituzionale p.73 Scheda: Londra, p. 78
X. La Francia: una moderna monarchia assoluta, p. 83
Scheda: Versailles, p. 96
XI. Lo Stato sabaudo p.100
Scheda: Venaria Reale, p. 107
XII. Le mura, le acque, i porti p.111
Schede: Messina, p. 129 - Rochefort, p. 133
XIII.Le nuove fondazioni p.136
Schede: Zamosc, p. 147 - Richelieu, p. 150
XIV.Le calamità: tipologie e strategie di ricostruzione, p. 154
Scheda: Avola, p. 164
Bibliografia 167 Gli autori (D.del Pesco, cap. 1-11; (A.H., cap. 12-14, Londra, Venaria Reale), p.177 Indice dei luoghi p.181

Tra Rinascimento e Barocco la storia della Teriaca, l'antico polifarmaco della tradizione galenica, nel regno di Napoli. Prima pubblicazione, in Anthropos e Iatria, Rivista italiana di Studi e Ricerche sulle Medicine Antropologiche e di Storia delle Medicine, anno IV, n°1, Gennaio-Marzo 2000.

Thorough study on the editions of Antonio Bruni da Manduria, the relation between painters, publishers and authors (ut pictura poesis) in early Baroque Rome and Naples, within the academies of the Oziosi and te Humoristi. Full set of catalogue entries for engravings by Guido Reni, Valesio, Cavalier d'Arpino, Domenichino etc. (proceeding from 2 years of independent studies at the Istituto Italiano di Studi Storici Benedetto Croce, Naples, 1997/99)

Luis de la Cerda y Aragón, 9th Duke of Medinaceli, was the next-to-last Spanish viceroy to rule over Naples. Shortly after his arrival (1696) he commissioned the paving of the seafront promenade at Chiaia, which ran for over a mile. The ‘new’ (nuova) Strada Medinaceli featured a series of ornamental fountains, including two larger ones marking the beginning and the end of the tree-lined walkway and dedicated, significantly, to Vergil and Sannazaro. Summoning up the hallowed tradition of the Classical locus amoenus, the impressive public walk was intended to showcase the enlightened policies of the viceregal regime. Technical considerations were paramount for the engineers in charge of the design. They not only made sure the “passeggio lastricato” could withstand heavy carriages but also devised a water-supply system that serviced both the fountains and the beachfront residences – surely an ingenious and effective means to entice owners to help finance the project.  Believed mistakenly to be a short-lived project, the late seventeenth-century rearrangement of Chiaia left an important mark on Naples’s urban landscape traceable throughout the eighteenth century.

A comprehensive study of this highly intellectualized seaside garden is still missing. Yet inscriptions, chronicles and a host of written and visual records allow for a fairly accurate reconstruction of its programme. This paper wishes to call attention to the various historical undercurrents that converge on this extraordinarily interesting and early example of a public seashore garden. The busts of Vergil and Sannazaro provided an obvious link with the literary traditions of Naples and were also meant as a reminder that the viceroy Medinaceli, who was also a munificent patron of the arts, envisioned a restoratio of the city’s glorious past. A member of the Accademia dell’Arcadia, founded in Rome in 1690, Medinaceli was undoubtedly partisan to the so-called Arcadian rationalism (razionalismo arcadico) prevalent among the educated, progressive élite of the papal capital where he had discharged duties as Spanish ambassador for almost a decade (1687-1696). He most definitely contributed to its dissemination in Naples. Considering the emphasis Pope Innocent XII placed on financing rationally efficient public works in the closing decade of the seventeenth century, it is hardly surprising Medinaceli preferred as a lasting memorial to his government a garden-like thoroughfare meant to provide both efficient transportation year-round and refreshment for the population during the summer. Although the first meeting of the Accademia Palatina took place in 1698 while Strada Medinaceli was reaching completion, the minutes of these gatherings document the scientific and cultural interests vying at the viceregal court. Some prominent members of the Accademia Palatina held to an empiricist outlook. Their long-standing interest in experimental science shows in the close scrutiny of natural phenomena evident in several lessons (lezioni) read aloud before the viceroy and his court. Indeed, the scientists, engineers, writers, and artists close to the viceroy prove critical to understand the highly charged cultural ambiance that fostered a project as complex as the new Strada Medinaceli. To be sure, the manner in which rationalism, empiricism, and antiquarianism contributed to the garden programme deserves to be studied in detail.

Título: Hugon, Alain: La insurrección de Nápoles, 1647- 1648: La construcción del acontecimiento, (traducción de Marie Salgues con la colaboración de Mónica Castillo Lluch). Zaragoza: Prensas de la universidad de Zaragoza, 2014, 514 págs.
Autor (es): Rivero Rodríguez, Manuel
Fecha de edición: 2014
Cita: Libros de la Corte.es 8 (2014): 108-111
ISBN: 1989-6425
Materias: Historia

Resumen: Entre 1671 y 1676 el marqués de Grottole desempeñó el cargo de embajador de la ciudad de Nápoles en la corte de la reina gobernadora Mariana de Austria. Durante aquellos cinco años su negociación estuvo orientada a reforzar el poder de la nobleza de los seggi en el reino de Nápoles y a deshacer el legado del virrey conde de Oñate. Para ello presentó un memorial con trece demandas que buscaban mejorar la jurisdicción de la nobleza napolitana en la política de abastecimiento de la ciudad, favorecer la situación de los diputados refugiados o regular los derechos y obligaciones de los Electos. Esta contribución tiene como objetivo anali-zar el contenido político de esta embajada y calibrar la importancia de los embajadores y agen-tes que, en representación de las corporaciones de los reinos, negociaban en la corte regia. Abstract: between 1671 and 1676 the marquis of Grottole had the charge of ambassador of the city of Naples in the court of queen governor Mariana of Austria. During those five years his negotiation was oriented to reinforce the power of the nobility of the seggi in the Kingdom of Naples and to undo the legacy of the viceroy earl of Oñate. to achieve this, he presented a memorial with thirteen demands headed to improve the jurisdiction of the nobility in the politics of supply of the city, favour the situation of the deputies refugees or regulate the rights and obligations of the Elects. this contribution will analyse the political content of this embassy and calibrate the importance of the ambassadors and agents that, in representation of the corporations of the kingdoms, negotiated in the regal court.

After some years of French and Aragonese rule, Naples became part of the Spanish Empire with its annexation in 1503, during the reign of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille. From that time until 1707 Naples functioned as viceroyalty, where the viceroy governed the province in the name of and as representative of the Spanish monarch. Naples, thus, was to become one of the most desirable political assignments for Spanish governors but also the site of political controversy. By the seventeenth-century this viceroyalty (and its palace) was the post of Spanish grandees such as the Count of Lemos, a patron of the arts. The succession of the Count of Lemos by the polemical Duke of Osuna, and subsequently by two family members of the Count Duke of Olivares, who lived lavishly, were some of the reasons that angered Spain’s grandees and brought the conspiracy and subsequent downfall of the Count Duke of Olivares, minister to king Philip IV, as well as the Neapolitan revolt of 1647. T...

"Myths, Prototypes, Riddles of Rebels and Rebellions, and History’s Examples"

The article deals with two books that, nonetheless their different objects and approaches, share the evergreen issue of rebellions and rebels.
The first part (“Historiographical analysis and questions to the present time”) presents the last book dedicated by Aurelio Musi (2019) to the Neapolitan famous rebel Masaniello.
The starting point for the second part (“History’s lessons and policy’s theatres”) is a groundless cliché on Masaniello which can lead to a theatrical representation of Masaniello in 1649 England.
The third part (“An unknown source for Shakespeare”) presents a book published in February 2018 by the computer’s expert Dennis McCarthy together with the Shakespearean scholar June Schlueter that shows an until now unnknown source for Shakespeare’s historical dramas like Coriolanus, Henry V, 2 Henry VI , and offers both the transcript and a digitalized reproduction of the source.
Some among the several issues raised by that source, George North’s A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and rebels (1576), are discussed in the fourth and last part of the article (“Sources for the Shakespeare’s unknown source”).

Angela De Benedictis, Miti, prototipi, enigmi di ribelli e ribellioni, e lezioni della storia, "Storicamente", 15 (2019), no. 14. DOI: 10.12977/stor761

in Anna Maria Rao, Napoli e il Mediterraneo nel Settecento. Scambi, immagini, istituzioni, Bari, Edipuglia, 2017, pp. 143-160.

The chapter focuses on the conversion of Muslim slaves in Naples during a multi-century period, 1565 – 1828. Thanks to the rediscovery of an archive that thought to be lost, Archivio della Basilica di San
Francesco, which contains the parish documentation from chapel palace and arsenal’s church, the author analyses a topic so far unknown. After an introductory section, the first part examines the neophytes’ features and their changes along the centuries. The second aim is a reflection on the reasons of conversion to the Catholic religion in Early Modern Naples.

Recenti ricerche sui viceré spagnoli hanno consentito una migliore comprensione del loro patronato musicale. Il problema della continuità nel mecenatismo musicale sotto il sistema politico del viceregno è stata spesso affrontata dalla storiografia musicale. Il continuo cambio di viceré si contrappone, in questo senso, ad altri centri politici come gli stati italiani del nord o le grandi corti europee. L'articolo ribalta la prospettiva osservando che poca attenzione è stata rivolta finora agli interessi musicali della nobiltà che ruota intorno alla corte vicereale. Tre esempi sono presentati e confrontati tra di loro: il marchese di Aitona, il duca di Lemos e il principe di Belvedere.

En este artículo se reúne un conjunto de esculturas napolitanas localizadas en el antiguo territorio de la diócesis de Tarazona, más amplio que el actual, en parte ya conocidas, junto a otras inéditas. Igualmente, se intenta atribuir la factura de dichas tallas italianas a sus correspondientes escultores o, en su defecto, a su círculo artístico. Asimismo, se dan a conocer dos esculturas firmadas y fechadas por el escultor Jacopo Bonavita en 1694.