DOCSLIB.ORG

6. Political History Aurelio Musi the “Neapolitan Nation”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
6. Political History Aurelio Musi the “Neapolitan Nation” 6. Political HISTORY Aurelio Musi The “Neapolitan Nation” 1 “Neapolitan nation” is a recurrent expression in the historiography of the early modern Kingdom of Naples. While offering a strong interpretive concept to understand the developments of several centuries, it can also acquire different meanings in various historical, political, and ideological contexts. The term has been in use since the beginning of Spanish rule in the kingdom, but it gained a precise meaning with the work of Angelo di Costanzo in the second half of the 16th century. This historian identified the aristocracy as the only collective subject capable of representing the interests and prerogatives of the entire kingdom to the Spanish sovereign, of insisting on the kingdom’s juridico-political autonomy, and of playing the role of the monarchy’s main partner. However, the scenario changes at the start of the following century. The consolidation of royal absolut- ism, the function of the kingdom within the Spanish imperial system, the strategies of integration and consensus adopted by the king and the viceroys, and the formalized power structure in Naples were the primary factors that led the great historian Giovanni Antonio Summonte, in his Historia della Città e Regno di Napoli [History of the City and Kingdom of Naples], to reflect upon the search for a delicate balance between the needs of royal absolutism and those of the kingdom’s autonomy. In his work, the term “Neapolitan nation” acquires an ethico-political meaning founded on the balance between centralization and autonomy and on the union and collaboration between nobility and people in the government of the capital city. The classical reference point was the confederation between ancient Naples and Rome; the political model was the so-called mixed government. The search for the capital’s political identity continued. At the start of the 18th century, Pietro Giannone, in his Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli 1 In the early modern period the term “Neapolitan” could refer to both the city and the kingdom that took its name from its capital; this is still true in modern historiography. All notes in this essay are the translator’s. 132 aurelio musi [Civil History of the Kingdom of Naples] (1723), presented a new “national” jurisdictionalism (a strain of political thought emphasizing the autonomy of the secular state from church authority). It was at this point, with the end of the Spanish imperial system and the entry of the Kingdom of Naples in a new political system dominated by the Austrian Habsburgs, that Neapolitan national sentiment partially changed. This is largely owing to Giannone’s anti-papal thought and to the contribution of new studies of public law, which gave rise to an idea of “national com- munity,” as Lionardo Panzini wrote in the introduction to the Gravier edi- tion of Istoria civile (1770). The novelty of Giannone’s work consisted in his ability to see beyond the harmonious image of common law in order to develop a profound critique of a system of power by focusing on the right of asylum (which prohibited secular authorities from entering most ecclesiastic spaces), feudal jurisdiction, taxation, and the economic and material life of clergy members. Giannone also referred to the “national” tradition of Naples when he attacked the feudal vassalage of the Kingdom of Naples to the church and reclaimed the kingdom’s territorial integrity by defending state prerogatives. As a result, the model and the Ghibel- line myth of Emperor Frederick II (1198–1250) passed on to Neapolitan Enlightenment culture.2 For all these writers, the centrality of the city of Naples to the identity of the kingdom was an undisputed given. This remains true even when, at the end of the 18th century, Giuseppe Maria Galanti attacked the para- sitical relationship between capital and provinces and restated the old metaphor of a monstrous head (Naples) that exploited and consumed all the resources of its frail body (the provinces). At that point the possibility of forming a new and wider national sentiment emerged from the need to find a new balance between capital and provinces. Galanti focused on the new connection between a nation and its constitution; the two terms enlighten each other, since the nation could no longer be built on the primacy of the capital and the imbalance between Naples and the prov- inces; rather, it had to be built on a constitution which should ensure the balance and government of the kingdom’s territory, the construction of rules and laws well-suited to the kingdom’s material conditions, the 2 Ever since its foundation in 1130, the kingdom had been formally a vassal state to the papacy, a status which its rulers acknowledged until the late 18th century by annual gifts presented to the pope. The medieval Ghibellines supported the emperors in their power struggle with the papacy..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ranke the Reactionary
    Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) Volume 9 Issue 1 Syracuse Scholar 1988 Article 5 1988 Ranke the reactionary Peter Burke Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Burke, Peter (1988) "Ranke the reactionary," Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991): Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar/vol9/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) by an authorized editor of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Burke: Ranke the reactionary RANKE THE REACTIONARY PETER BURKE T IS NOT EASY to give a definition, or even an exact descrip­ tion, ofRanke's contribution to the discipline of history. Many past i definitions characterize his achievement in such a way that they do injustice to important developments in European historical writing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For this reason it may be useful to creep up on Ranke from behind, in other words, to see him from the perspective of his predecessors rather than his successors. For example, Ranke is some­ times claimed to be the originator of the important historiographical turn from the narrative "chronicle'' to the documentary "record." On the one side, his famous Zur Kritik neuer Geschichtschreiber is presented as the first serious criticism of narrative sources such as Giovio and Guicciardini. On the other, Ranke is described, as he was by Lord Acton in his inaugural lecture at Cam­ bridge, as "the real originator of the heroic study of records;' and great em­ phasis is placed on his use, for example, of the archives of Venice (for the reports of ambassadors) and Frankfurt (for the proceedings of the Reichstag 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Threat from the Sea. the Kingdom of Naples Between Piracy, Warfare and Statehood in a Tractatus by Giovan Francesco De Ponte
    THE THREAT FROM THE SEA. THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES BETWEEN PIRACY, WARFARE AND STATEHOOD IN A TRACTATUS BY GIOVAN FRANCESCO DE PONTE LA MINACCIA DAL MARE. IL REGNO DI NAPOLI TRA PIRATERIA, GUERRA E COSTRUZIONE DELLO ‘SPAZIO’ STATALE IN UN TRACTATUS DI GIOVAN FRANCESCO DE PONTE Francesco Serpico Università degli Studi del Molise [email protected] Abstract english: The paper focuses on the topic of the impact of piracy on the institu- tional framework in the Kingdom of Naples during the Modern Age (XVIth ̶ XVIIth centu- ries). Many historians agree that the continuous Ottoman̶-Barbaresque raids on the coast of Southern Italy played a key role in the conditions of fragility and weakness of the South and its progressive marginalization from the economic and productive networks of early modern Europe. Consequently, the paper first analyzes the reason for military weakness of the Kingdom of Naples, and then it examines the effect of defensive vulnerability on the political-constitutional field through a Juridical culture’s paradigmatic text: theTrac- tatus de potestate Proregis et Collaterali Consilii et regimine Regni by Giovan Francesco De Ponte. In hindsight, the evaluation of the strategies of the government during the Spanish viceroyalty shows how the strong alliance between the Spanish Monarchy and the lawyers-administrators (the noble of robes) was a formidable legitimizing machine for the monarchy, but it also leads to the nobility progressively moving away from its tra- ditional role of government and military defense. The final result of this compromise was to deprive the Kingdom of the only means that they had that could effectively counter attack the maritime dominance of the Ottoman-Barabresque pirates and feed a growing sense of insecurity which deeply scarred the fragile political balances of the southern Monarchy.
    [Show full text]
  • Natural Law and the Chair of Ethics in the University of Naples, 1703–1769
    Modern Intellectual History (2020), 1–27 doi:10.1017/S1479244320000360 ARTICLE Natural Law and the Chair of Ethics in the University of Naples, 1703–1769 Felix Waldmann* Christ’s College, Cambridge *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This articles focuses on a significant change to the curriculum in “ethics” (moral philosophy) in the University of Naples, superintended by Celestino Galiani, the rector of the university (1732–53), and Antonio Genovesi, Galiani’s protégé and the university’s professor of ethics (1746–54). The art- icle contends that Galiani’sandGenovesi’s sympathies lay with the form of “modern natural law” pioneered by Hugo Grotius and his followers in Northern Europe. The transformation of curricular ethics in Protestant contexts had stemmed from an anxiety about its relevance in the face of moral skepticism. The article shows how this anxiety affected a Catholic context, and it responds to John Robertson’scontentionthatGiambattistaVico’suseof“sacred history” in his Scienza nuova (1725, revised 1730, 1744) typified a search among Catholics for an alternative to “scholastic natural law,” when the latter was found insufficiently to explain the sources of human sociability. In August 1746, Antonio Genovesi was appointed to a professorship of moral phil- osophy or “ethics” in the University of Naples. The appointment marked a second attempt by Celestino Galiani, the university’s rector or cappellano maggiore,tosecure Genovesi a permanent chair (cattedra), after his failed attempt to install Genovesi in the cattedra of logic and metaphysics in March 1744.1 Until Genovesi’s appointment in May 1754 to a professorship of commerce, he would hold the cattedra di etica only in anticipation of a contest or concorso, in which any aspirant could vie for the post.
    [Show full text]
  • BARBARISM and RELIGION Volume Two Narratives of Civil Government
    BARBARISM AND RELIGION Volume Two Narratives of Civil Government J. G. A. POCOCK The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , United Kingdom http://www.cup.ac.uk West th Street, New York, -, USA http://www.cup.org Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne , Australia © J. G. A. Pocock This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Baskerville /. pt [] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library hardback Contents Acknowledgements page x Note on usage xi List of abbreviations xii Introduction : : Civil and ecclesiastical history Popes and emperors: from the Isaurians to the Hohenstaufen Angevins, Spaniards and Gallicans: to the brink of Enlightenment Gibbon and Giannone: narrative, philosophy, erudition : - - On the horizons of Europe: the kings of the north Courtly monarchy as the instrument of Enlightenment: the Sie`cle de Louis XIV Asia and the dechristianisation of history: the Sie`cle and the Essai sur les Moeurs The Christian millennium in Europe: the Essai sur les Moeurs vii viii Contents The recovery of civil government, the rebirth of fanaticism and the return to the Sie`cle Voltaire: the exasperating predecessor
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Chapter 11 the PUBLIC SPHERE and the ORGANIZATION of KNOWLEDGE Brendan Dooley Introduction
    Chapter 11 THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE Brendan Dooley Introduction: the marketplace of ideas ‘The kittens have opened their eyes’. 1 So proclaimed Lionardo Fioravanti in 1576, commenting on the distribution of knowledge about nature to wider and wider audiences. No longer, in his view, could the specialists count on popular ignorance for guaranteeing their prestige. And his statement about the effects of the printing press, Costantino Saccardino applied practically word for word, some forty years later, to knowledge about religion. Around the same time that Saccardino was burned for heresy in Bologna, Traiano Boccalini in Rome remarked about the large number of curious minds to which politics was now being exposed. When Ferrante Pallavicino finally added the field of sexual experience to this growing list, no one could deny that a significant change was under way. What was to be this brave new world, in which the secret nostrums and enchantments of the philosophers would be put to everyday use? What would happen if the true nature of religion were revealed, and the techniques used by rulers for gaining and losing states made objects for conversation by the many? What were the risks, if new knowledge of the body were to put the deepest sources of pleasure, so to speak, at the fingertips of all? Political and religious authorities thought they knew. Discipline would slacken. Obedience would disappear. And the tradition-honoured distinctions between categories of people would be erased. In short, a world of lewdness, licence and libertinism would replace the more ordered one in which they lived.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Study of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily
    - Modern Study of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily Donald Matthew University of Reading The title may look straight-forward, yet almost every part of it needs some elucidation. First, let it be understood that it would not be possible in a narrow compass such as this to survey, summarise or su m up the amazing quantity of modern , even of recent, historical work on the Norman kingdom, ' In stead I propose only to focus attention on the somewhat surprising fact that scholarly enthusiasm for the Norman kingdom is, in historical terms, comparatively recent and of rather a special kind. Since there are many languages in which studies about it are published, and few scholars can be confident of having read most of it, it seemed better to concentrate on works written in English. This is not such a limitation as it might at first appear, as will become apparent, but , even if it were, it is not unreasonable to assume that English works are bener known here than foreign ones. There is now a long-standing tradition of considering the two Norman kingdoms of England and Sicily as not only comparable, but outstanding in twelfth-century term s. English writers familiar with the Normans in England have therefore some advantage when dealing with the southern kingdom, even over French and German hi storians, who have understandably tended to take the view that the French and German twelfth-century monarchies are problems rather than models. My own attention was drawn originally to the study of the Sicilian monarchy because it seemed an obvious way to improve my understanding of the Normans.
    [Show full text]
  • Pre-1850 Western Manuscripts11.Mwalb02545
    Pre-1850 Western manuscripts11.MWalB02545 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 28, 2021. eng Describing Archives: A Content Standard Brandeis University 415 South St. Waltham, MA URL: https://findingaids.brandeis.edu/ Pre-1850 Western manuscripts11.MWalB02545 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 4 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 4 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 5 - Page 2 - Pre-1850 Western manuscripts11.MWalB02545 Summary Information Repository: Brandeis University Title: Pre-1850 Western manuscripts ID: 11.MWalB02545 Date [inclusive]: 1150-1850 Date [bulk]: 1450-1850 Physical Description: 5.00 Linear Feet Physical Description: 33 items other_unmapped Physical Description: 33.00 Items Text [other]: 33 items Abstract: For more information about each item, please consult the item descriptions in the box and folder listing. Preferred Citation
    [Show full text]
  • Gli Elogi Del Porco La Mente Di Pietro Giannone
    GLI ELOGI DEL PORCO LA MENTE DI PIETRO GIANNONE Giuseppe Ferrari Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci. Hor. Ars Poet. AI SAGGI, E DOTTI AMADORI DELLA POETICA NOVITA’ D.CARLO ANTONIO GIARDINI MODANESE ACCADEMICO DISSONANTE Eccovi o giudiciosi Lettori, un Furto Poetico. Questa volta l’Amicizia e l’inviolabile Dritto di fedeltà sono stati oggetti per me di lieve momento. Una siffatta tradigione usata ad un Amico per il pubblico bene, e per i vantaggi della Repubblica Letteraria mi fa anzi superbo. Le Opere magistrali degli Eruditi, e de’ Vati egregi non debbono giacere inutilmente sconosciute fra obblio, e la polvere. I Dotti hanno ragione di goderne. I due seguenti Berneschi Capitoli meritavano le Stampe. Sono figli felici di non vulgare Ingegno, e noto a tutti. L’Abbate Giuseppe Ferrari Segretario in Casa Rangone ne fu l’Autore. L’umiltà sua, la troppo cavillosa diffidenza di se stesso gli faceva riguardare le seguenti composizioni come cosuccie non meritevoli d’esser lette, che in privato amichevol congresso. Ma egli dovria pur sapere, che Chi va animoso su per le vie di Pindo calcabili solo da’ divini Talenti, non ha a vergognarsi che il Mondo lo sappia. Io però col riflesso di dare con tali Capitoli un pascolo consentaneo al desiderio de’ saggi Coltivatori del Toscano Elicona mi sono indotto a stamparli senza la sua intelligenza, e con tutto che più volte me ne avesse negata copia. Troverete unite a’ Capitoli le rispettive Lettere, che gli accompagnano. Queste vi metteranno a giorno di ciò, che potrei ancor io dirvi, se non temessi di rendermivi rincrescevole.
    [Show full text]
  • Simone Paliaga Paolo Sarpi E La Sovranità Sul Mare
    Il Dominio deldelllll’Adriatico di Simone Paliaga Il Dominio dell’Adriatico Paolo Sarpi, Pietro Giannone e la sovranità contesa tra Venezia, Napoli e Vienna di Simone Paliaga “Chi può venire per mare non è lontano” Paolo Sarpi Negli ultimi tre lustri, soprattutto per merito di Corrado Vivanti (1928- 2013) e di Corrado Pin, gli studi su Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) hanno avuto un grandissimo impulso 1. Naturalmente gli studi si sono concentrati so- prattutto sulla figura politica e filosofica 2, ma vi sono stati pure recenti contributi specifici, dopo quello fondamentale di Roberto Cessi (1943), sugli scritti sarpiani del 1612 e 1616 relativi alla questione del “dominio del mare Adriatico” 3. 1 Fra i contributi maggiori, Corrado Vivanti, Paolo Sarpi , Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 2000; Id., Quattro lezioni su Paolo Sarpi , Bibliopolis, 2005; Ivone Caccia- villani, Paolo Sarpi: la guerra delle scritture del 1606 e la nascita della nuova Europa , Corbo e Fiore, 2005; Corrado Pin (cur.), Ripensando Paolo Sarpi : atti del convegno in- ternazionale di studi nel 450° anniversario della nascita di Paolo Sarpi, Ateneo Veneto, 2006; Webster G. Tarpley, Paolo Sarpi, His Networks, Venice and the Coming of the Thirty Years' War , The Catholic University of America, ProQuest, 2009; Jaska Kainu- lainen, Paolo Sarpi: A Servant of God and State , Brill, 2014. 2 Cfr. le voci di C. Pin e Adriano Prosperi e di ne Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero , Roma, Treccani, 2012 (Filosofia) e 2013 (Politica). 3 V. Alberto Tenenti [Venezia e i corsari, 1580-1615 , Laterza, 1961; Venezia e il senso del mare: storia di un prisma culturale dal XIII al XVIII secolo , Guerini e associati, 1999] e Roberto Cessi (1885-1969), La repubblica di Venezia e il problema adriatico , Padova, Cedam, 1943 (Napoli, ESI, 1953): su Cessi v.
    [Show full text]
  • Conclusion: Why Naples’S History Matters
    CONCLUSION: WHY Naples’s HISTORY MATTERS Anna Maria Rao The growing fields of global history and world history urge us to ques- tion the relevance of the history of specific territories or cities.1 To para- phrase a recent historiographical study, we might ask why Naples’s history matters.2 Eighteenth-century observers did not doubt the geo-political impor- tance of southern Italy or why for centuries conquerors coveted it: it was a country rich in natural resources and favored by a gentle climate that increased the indolence of its inhabitants but also rendered the land fertile; and it marked a European frontier, a political and religious outpost jutting into the Mediterranean. By the 18th century, these were commonplace considerations which we find repeated in diplomatic and narrative sources, correspondences, diaries, and travel journals. Thanks in part to those reflections, Naples and its kingdom continued to occupy a prominent position in early modern European political developments and in the struggle for continental hegemony that had involved European states since the 15th century. Between 1793 and 1795, the agents sent to Italy by the new French Republic born of the Revolution confirmed the importance of Naples for Mediterranean politics, itself crucial to French commerce; they underscored Naples’s natural, artistic, and archeological wealth; however, they also claimed that France would engage in a war of liberation rather than a war of conquest, as had occurred with the inva- sion led by Charles VIII three centuries earlier. After the pope invested Roger the Norman as king of Sicily in 1130, the southern kingdom remained Italy’s only great monarchy—the Regno by definition—until 1718, when the Duke of Savoy also became king of Sar- dinia, a much smaller monarchy.3 This monarchical character, originating 1 Van Berkel and de Goei, International Relevance.
    [Show full text]
  • Power, Politics and Propaganda the Mystification of the Revolt of Naples
    Erasmus University Rotterdam Master’s Thesis Early Modern Intellectual History - CH5050 Prof. dr. R. von Friedeburg Prof. dr. A. Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño Power, Politics and Propaganda The Mystification of the Revolt of Naples By Nicole S.D. Linkels, 303682 15-03-2015 Preliminary Chapter: Introduction 3 Contemporary Historiography 4 General Agreements and Differences 8 Thesis Outline 13 Chapter I – Spanish Political History and Thought 17 I.I Spain: an Agglomeration of Political Entities 18 I.II Identity within the Spanish Monarchy 25 I.III Philip IV upon the Theatrum Mundi 31 I.IV Political Theory and Debate 35 I.V Conclusion 39 Chapter II - Agitation in Spanish Naples 41 II.I The Cost of Warfare 42 II.II Legal and Social Structures of Naples 46 II.III Feudal Jurisdiction in Neapolitan Society 54 II.IV Conclusion 58 Chapter III – Giovanni Battista de Thoro on Justice and Monarchy 60 III.I Aureum compendium omnium decisionum 61 III.II Essential Virtues of the King 65 III.III Ideals of State versus Neapolitan Reality 70 III.IV Conclusion 74 Chapter IV – Protagonists in the Revolt of Naples 77 IV.I Masaniello and Don Juan 79 IV.II The Personification of People and Government 82 IV.III Conclusion 87 Chapter V – The Neapolitan Rebels against the Spanish Army 90 V.I The Hardship of War 90 V.II News as Propaganda 94 V.III Conclusion 101 Chapter VI – The Revolt of Naples in Literary Art 104 VI.I The Castilian Poem and the Dutch Play 104 VI.II History as propaganda 107 VI.III Conclusion 110 Chapter VII – Conclusion 112 Bibliography 123 Primary literature 123 Secondary literature 124 2 Preliminary Chapter: Introduction For nearly nine months, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Naples rebelled against the government of their Spanish viceroy, the Duke of Arcos.
    [Show full text]
  • Pietro Giannone Istoria Civile Del Regno Di Napoli Volume Settimo
    Pietro Giannone Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli volume settimo www.liberliber.it Questo e-book è stato realizzato anche grazie al sostegno di: E-text Web design, Editoria, Multimedia (pubblica il tuo libro, o crea il tuo sito con E-text!) http://www.e-text.it/ QUESTO E-BOOK: TITOLO: Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli, volume settimo AUTORE: Giannone Pietro TRADUTTORE: CURATORE: NOTE: Il testo è presente in formato immagine sul sito The Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/). Realizzato in collaborazione con il Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.net/) tramite Distributed Proofreader (http://www.pgdp.net/) CODICE ISBN E-BOOK: n. d. DIRITTI D'AUTORE: no LICENZA: questo testo è distribuito con la licenza specificata al seguente indirizzo Internet: http://www.liberliber.it/libri/licenze/ TRATTO DA: Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli / di Pietro Giannone - Milano : per Nicolò Bettoni, 1821- 1822 - 9 v. ; 20 cm ., settimo volume 397, [3] p CODICE ISBN FONTE: n. d. 1a EDIZIONE ELETTRONICA DEL: 18 novembre 2015 INDICE DI AFFIDABILITA': 1 0: affidabilità bassa 1: affidabilità media 2: affidabilità buona 3: affidabilità ottima DIGITALIZZAZIONE: Distributed proofreaders, http://www.pgdp.net/ REVISIONE: Claudio Paganelli, [email protected] IMPAGINAZIONE: Claudio Paganelli, [email protected] PUBBLICAZIONE: Claudio Paganelli, [email protected] Informazioni sul "progetto Manuzio" Il "progetto Manuzio" è una iniziativa dell'associa- zione culturale Liber Liber. Aperto a chiunque vo- glia collaborare, si pone come scopo la pubblicazio- ne e la diffusione gratuita di opere letterarie in formato elettronico. Ulteriori informazioni sono di- sponibili sul sito Internet: http://www.liberliber.it/ Aiuta anche tu il "progetto Manuzio" Se questo "libro elettronico" è stato di tuo gradi- mento, o se condividi le finalità del "progetto Ma- nuzio", invia una donazione a Liber Liber.
    [Show full text]