Book Description
"Baroque Naples" presents documents on the history, culture, and art of the city during its golden age of prestige and prosperity under the Spanish Hapsburgs and Bourbons. Texts cover the history of the city and kingdom, contemporary travel guides, descriptions of the city's art, architecture and classical inheritance, its literature, music and theater. There are also chapters that offer texts by the famed Neapolitan economists, legal thinkers and philosophers of the age; a survey of religious thought, and of the Neapolitan contribution to the natural sciences. The selections are preceded by brief introductions to the writers and the ideas presented in the texts. Sixty-nine selections include Enrico Bacco, John Evelyn, Salvator Rosa, Luigi Vanvitelli, the Neapolitan Marinisti, Pietro Trapassi (Metastasio), Giovanni Battista Della Porta, Antonio Serra, Giuseppe Palmieri, Gaetano Filangieri, Tommaso Campanella, Giambattista Vico, Fynes Moryson and many others. The volume also includes brief biographies and chronologies. 60 illustrations, 3 maps, introduction, bibliography, index.
From the Author
Baroque Naples, 1600–1800, offers a contextual approach to these two hundred years in the kingdom. Because its content is interdisciplinary, general as well as particular references are indicated in the notes for the benefit of the specialist and non-specialist alike. It is hoped that this anthology will serve as an introduction and guide to Neapolitan history, literature, and culture of this period. It is my intention to encourage the reader to explore further and become familiar with the additional works of many of these authors who, as indicated in the biographical introductions, produced far more than has been transcribed here.
