New Kindle Edition

The newly revised Kindle edition of Ronald G. Musto’s Medieval Naples: A Documentary History, 400-1400 is now available. It offers the complete text with all the Kindle’s latest features, including hyperlinked footnotes, links to external resources, such as Italica Press image galleries and Interactive Map of Medieval Naples, and all images in full-color. All for only $9.99.

Now Kindle also offers free updates on all purchased Kindle titles. Be sure to follow their update instructions if you have already purchased a copy. 

A Documentary History 400-1400

We’re happy to announce the print publication of Ronald G. Musto’s Medieval Naples: A Documentary History, 400-1400 as the latest volume in Italica’s A Documentary History of Naples.

This is a revised and expanded version of the edition published online for the Kindle and iPad over a year ago. This edition includes new readings and additional sections edited by Eileen Gardiner on medieval Naples’ literature, hagiography, literate and book culture. 

A new Introduction offers a comprehensive survey of the periods covered in the historical texts, with a discussion of the historiography and of important research and interpretive issues. These include the material development of the medieval city from Late Antiquity through the end of the Angevin period, the condition and use of the available primary sources and archaeological evidence, with particular attention given to the wide variety of recent excavations and of archival materials, the question of the ruralization and recovery of its urban core through the little known Ducal period — with some discussion of the city’s changing population — the question of Naples’ importance as a commercial and political capital, its developing economic and material base, and the question of its relationship to its hinterland on the one hand and to broader Mediterranean contexts on the other. It also surveys the changes in Naples’ grid plan, its walls and fortifications, its port, and its commercial and residential development. It complements the discussions in Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo’s Medieval Naples: An Architectural a Urban History.

It totals 460 pages, contains 82 readings covering all aspects of Neapolitan urban life and culture from c.400 to c.1400, 74 figures, 60 thumbnail images keyed to a map of medieval Naples, a complete bibliography, index, and a key to external resources, including our Interactive Map of Medieval Naples, our online Bibliographies, and our online image galleries. The book is now available in paperback and the hardcover edition will be ready soon. A revised and expanded Kindle and iPad edition will follow shortly after that.

Two New Titles

We’d like to call your attention to two new, important titles on medieval Naples. Alas, since we assumed editorship of Speculum, we’ve had to refrain from reviewing titles here. But here they are:

The first is Amedeo Feniello’s Napoli: Società ed economia (902-1137) (Nuovi Studi Storici 89), Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 2011. Feniello is among the most important historians of Naples working today, and his various works have shed light on many under-studied aspects of the city for some years now.


The second title is Samantha Kelly’s edition of The Cronaca di Partenope: An Introduction to and Critical Edition of the First Vernacular History of Naples (c. 1350), Leiden: Brill, 2011. This is one of the most important sources for the history of the later Middle Ages in Naples and it’s now in a reliable edition, with an expert introduction.


We encourage you to have a look.

Historical Texts, 400–1400 is Published

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.

Medieval Naples: An Architectural & Urban History

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.