Medieval Naples: A Documentary History

S. Giovanni Maggiore

2011-12-11T14:44:00.001-05:00

We have just returned from a brief trip to Naples where we obtained permission from the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici to view and photograph the church and the scavi of S. Giovanni Maggiore, one of the most important early-Christian buildings of Naples, constructed under Bishop Vincenzo c. 550-60.

The church was meticulously and beautifully restored by the Soprintendenza under the supervision of Arch. Orsola Foglia and team but has been closed since its completion in 2003/4. Thanks to Arch. Foglia and the Soprintendenza, we have now expanded out its entry in our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples and have posted a complete series of images in our web gallery.

Most notable among these for medievalists are the two spoliated capitals surmounted by Vincenzo’s monograph, and the remains of the early-Christian ambulatory, incorporating spoliated columns and pilasters from Leptis Magna dating from the second century CE. Both the scavi and the restoration of the dazzling 17th-century basilica (by Dionisio Lazzari) are important cultural sites in Naples, and we urge readers to make inquiries to the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici (Palazzo Reale, Piazza del Plebiscito, Napoli) both to view the site and to urge its reopening and the complete publication of its restoration and excavations.

Historical Texts, 400–1400 is Published

2011-11-14T21:32:00.001-05:00

We are happy to announce the publication of Ronald G. Musto’s Medieval Naples: A Documentary History 400–1400, Historical Texts. This title is one of Italica’s born-digital works and is now offered exclusively on the Kindle platform for both the Kindle itself and other handhelds, such as the iPad, iPhone and iPhone Touch. It incorporates all the texts available until now on the Medieval Naples section of our website and adds a new general introduction to the period, its historiography, and important research and interpretive issues. It will soon also be available in hardcover and paperback editions.
Medieval Naples, 400–1400: A Documentary History is the first comprehensive and most complete English-language collection of sources yet to treat the history of the city from late Antiquity to the beginnings of the Renaissance. Sources are drawn from the historical, economic, literary, artistic, religious and cultural life from the fall of Rome through the Byzantine, Lombard, Norman, Hohenstaufen and Angevin periods.

This work takes full advantage of digital resources: hyperlinking to complete bibliographical information on WorldCat, to Italica Press image galleries, to external web resources, including digital archives and manuscript collections, online reference works and images, and to our own online bibliographies and Interactive Map of Medieval Naples.

Boccaccio’s Life of Giovanna I

2011-09-05T09:50:00.000-04:00

It’s been a very busy Spring and Summer for us, but with September we’re back editing and adding texts and other news and links for our Medieval Naples.

Our most recent addition in Chapter 6, The Angevins, is Giovanni Boccaccio’s Life of Giovanna I, from his On Famous Women (De claris mulieribus). This is excerpted from our newly published, revised edition of Guido A. Guarino’s translation. Our edition now includes a bibliographical note and bibliography to bring research on Boccaccio and this work up to date and reflect recent interpretive trends and debates.

This newly added reading is accompanied by an introduction on Boccaccio’s work and its place in Neapolitan historiography.

Medieval Naples: An Architectural & Urban History

2011-02-02T21:43:00.041-05:00

We are happy to announce that Medieval Naples: An Architectural & Urban History, 400-1400 by Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo has now been published. These two leading American experts on the subject offer the first comprehensive English-language review of Naples’ architecture and urban development from late antiquity to the high and late Middle Ages.

William Tronzo treats the early Middle Ages, from the end of the western Roman Empire to the end of the Duchy, or from about 400 to about 1139. He covers a range of topics, discussing the development of the city’s urban fabric and chief monuments, including the catacombs, Sta. Restituta, the baptistry of S. Giovanni in Fonte, the forum area including S. Paolo Maggiore and the early history of S. Lorenzo Maggiore, and the Pietrasanta.

Caroline Bruzelius then picks up the narrative and analysis from the twelfth century to the end of the Angevin period, or about 1400. She brings up to date and nuances many of the findings and themes of her The Stones of Naples. She revisits some of the same material on the early medieval city from a different perspective, that of religious foundations and urban topography. She proceeds to patronage — religious, mercantile, noble and royal — and then moves on to the role of Tuscan artists in Naples, concluding with the Angevin reconfiguration of the city in the late Middle Ages.

Clearly and concisely written, it is an ideal introductory survey for the scholar, student and general reader to medieval Naples, its chief monuments, and to the scholarly discussions and interpretations of the material, visual and documentary evidence.

Preface, select bibliography; appendices, including the Tavola Strozzi with key to buildings, map of medieval Naples with a thumbnail key; and index.

Illustrated with 83 black & white figures, plus 60 thumbnail images.
List of links to online resources from the Documentary History of Naples, including primary-source readings; online galleries containing over 450 additional images in full color; and links to full bibliographies with ongoing supplements.

The Anjou Bible

2011-01-24T14:15:00.010-05:00

Long known to scholars of Naples for its frontispieces of Robert of Anjou and the royal Angevin genealogy, the Malines (Mechelen) Bible is one of the most magnificent manuscripts of the Angevin period — and one of the most important visual sources for the reigns of Robert of Anjou and Giovanna I. A new edition has just been published in print facsimile and online. The print volume, The Anjou Bible: Naples 1340. A Royal Manuscript Revealed, edited by Lieve Watteeuw and Jan Van der Stock (Paris, Leuven & Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2010), offers a collection of twelve essays by such noted experts as John Lowden, Frans Gistelinck, Cathleen A. Fleck, Alessandro Tomei and Stefania Paone, Michelle Duran, Nicolas Bock, Alessandra Perriccioli (Saggese), Luc Dequeker, Pierre Delsaerdt, Marina Van Bos, Roberto Padoan, Marvin E. Klein, Gerrit de Bruin, Barnard J. Aalderink, and Ted A.G. Steemers.

The new book covers the provenance, codicology, conservation and restoration of the manuscript, its creation and artists and its cultural and political contexts. The print volume is accompanied by extensive annotations, an excellent bibliography, and full-color reproductions of every illustrated folio in the manuscript.

In November 2010 the Anjou Bible Research Project (Illuminare, K.U. Leuven) mounted a far-ranging exhibition and series of panels around the restoration. Even more important, the complete series of illustrated folios is now available online, free and open access, with an excellent high-resolution image viewer at: http://www.anjoubible.be/thebibleonline .

Interactive Map, Bibliography, Google Translate

2010-10-23T11:33:00.007-04:00

We’re happy to report that our Interactive Map and Bibliography are reaching expanding audiences. When we last reported on our Interactive Map back in September 2009 it had seen about 9,700 hits. As of today this number has risen to 25,725, over 16,000 hits in one year. The same holds true of our online Bibliography, which has now seen over 25,000 downloads, up from 10,000 a year ago.

We continue to revise the Interactive Map with newly added sites, revised and updated information, and new bibliography. Our downloadable Bibliography is now been supplemented by dynamically added listings on WorldCat arranged by period. We’re pleased that these resources are finding an audience and hope that they are of value.

You’ll also notice that we’ve added Google Translate to this blog: readers can now view these entries in a fairly accurate translation into their preferred language. Please do not hesitate to contact us here with your comments and suggestions for changes and additions.

New texts for Chapter 5: The Hohenstaufen

2010-09-23T11:51:00.008-04:00

We’ve just added some new texts to Chapter 5: The Hohenstaufen, for the reign of Henry VI. These include Richard of San Germano’s narrative of Henry’s invasion and conquest of the Regno and Naples; and his chancellor Conrad of Querfurt’s description of the Virgilian marvels of Naples and its environs. We’ve mixed in some creative dissonance by using the illustrations from Peter of Eboli’s Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis. After all, it was Conrad who had persuaded Peter to compose that work. Many of these images are now available online with Wikimedia. We hope to be adding selections from Peter of Eboli soon as well.

Chapter 4, The Normans, Now Online

2010-09-20T10:20:00.005-04:00

The first entries for Chapter 4, The Normans, are now online. This chapter currently includes texts from Alexander of Telese and Alexander of Neckham on Roger II’s conquest of Naples, on the Exultet rolls and their place in Neapolitan liturgy, and selections from Benjamin of Tudela’s Itinerary, describing his visit to the Campania and Naples. The current selections range in date from 1130 to c.1165. We will continue to add texts as we go along. We’ve also added some new texts to Chapter 3: Ducal Naples, including the Pactum or Promissio of Sergius VII with the Neapolitans of 1130.

New Dynamic Bibliographies on WorldCat

2010-09-02T17:04:00.007-04:00

Our comprehensive Bibliography for Medieval Naples: A Documentary History, arranged by period and type of resource, was last updated on January 4, 2009.

We’re happy to report that our new updates are now available online through WorldCat, the international cataloging resource provided by OCLC and a host of contributing libraries and library systems. With WorldCat one can view all available editions of books, articles, reviews and digital resources, as well as the libraries that hold these titles, with hyperlinks to your local library’s own online catalog. In addition, WorldCat provides links to online samples of books and hyperlinks for these titles to online sellers or free and open-access collections of books, texts, and archival resources.

Users can also create custom selections from these lists, download or export them into a number of online formats, including HTML, and format them according to a variety of scholarly style sheets, thus making these bibliographies ideal for research and teaching.

These supplemental bibliographies are works in progress, which we will update on a regular basis. WorldCat also allows users to annotate items and to suggest editions, thus making it a valuable interactive resource. We will eventually move all the titles on the comprehensive bibliography into WorldCat lists.

Chapter 3 Update

2010-07-29T16:39:00.009-04:00

We’ve added and revised some entries to Chapter 3: Ducal Naples; and we're also continuing work on the print version of Naples: A Documentary History, Art History, 400–1400, with chapters already published online by Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo. We hope to have work completed on this by summer’s end.

William Tronzo, Naples in the Early Middle Ages

2010-03-09T10:26:00.005-05:00

Italica Press is pleased to announce the publication of William Tronzo’s “Art History: Naples in the Early Middle Ages,” chapter 10 of Medieval Naples: A Documentary History, 400-1400 in Italica Press’s series, A Documentary History of Naples. Tronzo, an internationally known scholar of late ancient and early medieval art history, brings his expertise and elegant style to bear on the city’s transition from ancient Greco-Roman town to medieval capital, reviewing the development of its urban fabric and chief monuments, including the catacombs, Sta. Restituta, the baptistry of S. Giovanni in Fonte, the forum area, including S. Paolo Maggiore and the early history of S. Lorenzo Maggiore, and the Pietrasanta.
This chapter is available as a cross-searchable, downloadable PDF document, full of color and B&W images, plans and digital reconstructions. It joins the chapter by Caroline Bruzelius on The High and Late Middle Ages to form a complete review of the art history of medieval Naples.

Chapters 2 and 3 Now Online

2010-01-28T20:57:00.004-05:00

We’re pleased to inform our readers that the first selections in Chapters 2, Late Roman and Byzantine Naples and Chapter 3, Ducal Naples have now been launched online. Texts include the histories of Jordanes, Paul the Deacon, Procopius and the Liber Pontificalis; the Variae of Cassiodorus and Letters of Gregory I and selected archival documents.
Chapter 2 covers the period from 476 to the beginnings of the Duchy in 568. Chapter 3 picks up the narrative from 568 to the end of the Duchy in 1137.
Selections include hyperlinks to online archives and editions, bibliographical references, full-scale views of art, links to our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples and other chapters in the Documentary History.
These offerings are only the beginnings of these chapters. As we go along we’ll be adding further texts drawn from existing editions, and from our own translations of texts and archival documents. Thus far we have posted over 60 texts across all chapters of Medieval Naples, with over 100 illustrations, already making this the most extensive documentary selection in English for the history of medieval Naples.

Early Medieval Naples Now Forthcoming

2010-01-23T15:57:00.008-05:00

We’re happy to announce that William Tronzo’s contribution to our Documentary History of Naples: Art History. Naples in the Early Middle Ages is now in final production and will be published soon.

William Tronzo is an internationally known scholar of late ancient and early medieval art history. He brings his expertise and elegant style to bear on the city’s transition from ancient Greco-Roman town to medieval capital, reviewing the development of its urban fabric and chief monuments, including the catacombs, Sta. Restituta, the baptistry of S. Giovanni in Fonte, and the Pietrasanta.
This chapter will soon be available as a cross-searchable, downloadable PDF document, full of color and B&W images, plans and digital reconstructions. It will then join the chapter by Caroline Bruzelius on the High and Late Middle Ages to form a complete print book on the art history of medieval Naples.

Caroline Bruzelius, Naples Art History, Is Published

2009-12-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

We’re very pleased to announce the newest addition to our Naples: A Documentary History, 400–1400. Caroline Bruzelius’ Art History: Naples in the High and Late Middle Ages is the first comprehensive review of the city’s architecture, art and urban development in the high and late Middle Ages in English since the author’s The Stones of Naples.

Clearly and concisely written, it is an ideal introductory survey for the scholar, student and general reader. This downloadable, interactive e-book is fully searchable and can be navigated with the standard Adobe Acrobat interface: page by page, through an interactive table of contents or via bookmarks. It offers dozens of illustrations — maps, plans, elevations, drawings, color and black & white photos — that can be viewed at any number of screen resolutions. The work provides hyperlinks to web-based photo galleries of all the major monuments, to many documents cited in the text, and a complete — and free — downloadable Bibliography.

Napoli: Atlante della Città Storica

2009-11-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

One of the best finds in our research trips to Naples has been Italo Ferraro’s six-volume Napoli: Atlante della Città Storica (Naples: Clean, Oikos, 2002-).

Each of these hefty volumes takes on a different section of the city, moving rione by rione through the architecture and arts, urban fabric and history of the city with gorgeous color and black and white images, maps and street plans, elevations and axonometric projections of city blocks and individual buildings and complexes. The format is large, the design and layout elegant, and the information authoritative and up-to-date. Ferraro and his colleagues offer a wealth of detail, bibliographical citation and fine indexes.

We came across a copy of the first volume several years ago at the Port’Alba book stalls. It was a real steal and we lugged it home in our baggage. Subsequent volumes have been a bit more pricey (140-180 Euros), but well worth the investment.

Next time you're at Port’Alba look for some bargain copies (and if there are extras, do let us know!)

Een passie voor Napels

2009-11-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

We’re constantly on the lookout for digital resources to incorporate into, or link out to, our Medieval Naples pages. Recently we came across some wonderful photos of medieval and modern Naples on the site Een passie voor Napels (A Passion for Naples: A Cultural Travel Guide) curated by Henk Woudsma. The site uses a blog format, with a fine index of sites, to offer a detailed look at the city's major monuments, its urban fabric, street life and high culture. The site is written in Dutch and uses Google Translate for an English version.

With Henk’s kind permission we’ll be featuring some of his photos and other resources in our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples and web galleries, linking out to his originals.

We recommend the site to all and invite you to suggest other resources.

(Photo: © Henk Woudsma)

2009-09-24T08:33:00.000-04:00

With the end of the summer we return to our work on Naples. This autumn we’ll be adding more texts, images and hyperlinks to resources for our pages of readings.

In the meanwhile, we wanted to let you know that our open-access resources for medieval Naples are proving quite popular with readers. The free and downloadable Bibliography has already received over 10,000 downloads, while our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples has to date received over 9,700 views. We’ll keep editing and expanding both resources in the months ahead.

We’re also happy to inform our readers that Caroline Bruzelius’s chapter on Art and Architecture in High and Late Medieval Naples is in its final stages of editing and will be available to readers soon this fall.

The Hohenstaufen

2009-06-21T21:30:00.001-04:00

We’ve begun posting texts for Chapter 5, the Hohenstaufen period, beginning with the reign of Frederick II. These include selections from Villani, the Licterae Generales establishing the University of Naples, and some trade insurance documents concerning trade at the port of Naples.

We'll be expanding this chapter soon with additional texts.

Naples on Google Books

2009-06-08T09:07:00.000-04:00

We've recently experienced some of the benefits and pitfalls of using Google Books as a resource for the study of the Neapolitan past. We report on this experience in the June 12, 2009 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, available today online in an article entitled "Google Books Mutilates the Printed Past"

and accessible free for the next week.

Mutilation — of kingdoms and of scholarship — emerges as a key theme.

Psalter of Cristoforo Orimina

2009-05-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

The liturgical psalter illuminated by Cristoforo Orimina is online with E-Codices, Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. The manuscript is Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes 15. Shown here is fol. 29r. Orimina was a court painter during the reigns of Robert of Anjou and Giovanna I and probably completed this manuscript some time between 1335 and 1350 for the house of Agnes de Périgord (1305–1345), the widow of Robert’s youngest brother, John of Gravina, duke of Durazzo. The arms at the center bottom show those of Talleyrand-Périgord and of Armagnac. The manuscript shows the clear influence of Roberto di Oderisio, responsible for the frescoes in Sta. Maria Incoronata. According to some scholarship it reflects the influence of Franciscan ascetics at the Angevin court. Perhaps, but the manuscript is also replete with delightful marginal images of people at sport and play, making music, dancing, showing off the latest fashions, and in general demonstrating the love of life for which Naples and its court were well known in the mid-fourteenth century.

Baths of Pozzuoli now online

2009-04-28T08:33:00.000-04:00

Petrus de Eboli’s De balneis Puteolanis (The Baths of Pozzuoli) is now online in E-Codices, Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. The manuscript, Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 135, is believed to have been created in Naples during the reign of Giovanna I, some time between 1350 and 1370. It appears to show first-hand knowledge of the Bay of Naples’ and Bay of Pozzuoli’s archaeological remains of Roman baths.

First composed by Petrus, court poet to Henry VI of Sicily, between 1196 and 1220, it is one of the most important sources for medieval Naples’ topography and for the history of science and medicine in medieval Europe.

To access the collection, please see our entry on Petrarch’s visit to the baths in October 1343 and click on the thumbnail.

New Readings on Sex, Style and Spending

2009-04-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

We’ve added three new readings to our chapter on Robert of Anjou that sample his legislation on prostitution in central Naples (1314), record his spending on cavalcades and church support (June 1334), and translate his sumptuary edict on youth fashion (1335).

We review Paola Vitolo in RQ

2009-04-23T12:42:00.000-04:00

There’s a fine new book on Sta. Maria Incoronata that we've recently reviewed in the Spring 2009 issue of Renaissance Quarterly. It’s Paola Vitolo, La chiesa della Regina: L’Incoronata di Napoli, Giovanna I d’Angiò e Roberto di Oderisio (Rome: Viella, 2008). Readers can access the online review hosted by the University of Chicago Press. We hope in the future that Chicago will keep up the high standards established by RQ.

Bibliography and Interactive Map

2009-03-25T09:36:00.000-04:00

We’re happy to report that two of our new Medieval Naples pages are being used quite a bit by readers. Our Bibliography has now received almost 1,500 downloads. It is searchable and currently contains nearly 600 items of value to researchers in all periods of medieval Naples. It can be downloaded free of charge.

Our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples has now received nearly 3,900 views. This map uses the online tools available in Google Map. Clicking on the zoom-in or zoom-out buttons on the upper left will magnify views down to the street level. Users can also view this map in “Map” (or street) mode, Satellite (aerial photograph), or Terrain (topographical) views. It uses standard cartographical symbols for abbeys, churches, secular buildings, walls (early medieval and Angevin), gates, and fortifications.

Clicking on any of these symbols will open a window with descriptive texts, images, bibliography and hyperlinks to other texts, sites, and web-image galleries produced by Italica Press.

Clicking “View Larger Map” below will open this map in Google Map and provide a complete index of sites. There you can also open the map in Google Earth (a free, downloadable program) and see the medieval city set against a navigable three-dimensional landscape.

Both the Bibliography and Map are works in progress. We welcome your suggestions for additions and changes.

Site & Server Changes, New Pages

2009-03-16T11:25:00.000-04:00

We've just made some changes to our server for Medieval Naples that will make it easier to search and find pages. If you've bookmarked the Table of Contents for Angevin Naples, please change your bookmark to this URL: http://www.italicapress.com/index300.html . We've also placed direct links to documents from the Tables of Contents and added many new documents for the reigns of Robert of Anjou, Giovanna I and our first for Charles III.

Thanks,

We've begun Chapter 6: The Angevins

2009-03-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

After many years of delay and false starts we have arrived upon what we think is an ideal solution to our launching the publication of A Documentary History of Naples: Medieval Naples, 400–1400. Rather than wait until we have sifted through hundreds of primary sources, made our limited selections, translated, edited and prepared them for print, we’ve decided to use the potential of online publishing to forge ahead.
In the weeks and months ahead you’ll therefore begin to see many full-text selections on Neapolitan history in English translation appear on these pages. We’re beginning with two areas: the history of the Angevin period and Neapolitan literature and book production. The texts we’ve assembled represent only a small fraction of what we’ll be publishing, but as far as we know they already offer more English-language texts on medieval Naples than can be found published anywhere else.
As we continue to add content, change readings or texts, we’ll be posting entries on this blog. Subscribing to the RSS feed provided here will also give you immediate notification of these changes. The blog format of these pages will also give you a voice in the process: suggesting texts, additions and emendations, editorial and other changes to the texts we’ve already posted. We look forward to this process, and to hearing from you.