"Medieval Naples, 400–1400: A Documentary History” is the first comprehensive English-language collection of sources to treat the history of the city from late Antiquity to the beginnings of the Renaissance.
A new Introduction by Ronald G. Musto 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 also complements the discussions in Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo’s "Medieval Naples: An Architectural and Urban History" by examining the archival evidence for the survival of its less important architecture remains.
For the later Middle Ages, Musto examines the complex historiography of what he terms the “black legend of the Angevins.” This edition includes interactive, comprehensive notes and bibliographical references.
Sources are drawn from the historical, economic, literary, artistic, religious and cultural life from the fall of the Rome through the Byzantine, Lombard, Norman, Hohenstaufen and Angevin periods. Historical texts offer chronicles and histories; archival materials including accounts, tax, financial and commercial records, contracts, wills, notarial and government documents; poetry, romances, biographies and letters; liturgical and hagiographical texts; treatises on law, science, medicine, religion and philosophy; as well as examples of manuscript production, painting, architecture, and sculpture.
Resources include photos, video and sound, paintings, maps, drawings and engravings, ground plans and elevations.
“A Documentary History of Naples” presents a new publication format that combines print volumes with searchable online and downloadable texts, online bibliographies and image galleries, interactive Google mapping and Google Earth views to produce an ongoing and robust presentation of current research. It is a collaboration among religious and cultural, art and literary historians.
A new Introduction by Ronald G. Musto 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 also complements the discussions in Caroline Bruzelius and William Tronzo’s "Medieval Naples: An Architectural and Urban History" by examining the archival evidence for the survival of its less important architecture remains.
For the later Middle Ages, Musto examines the complex historiography of what he terms the “black legend of the Angevins.” This edition includes interactive, comprehensive notes and bibliographical references.
Sources are drawn from the historical, economic, literary, artistic, religious and cultural life from the fall of the Rome through the Byzantine, Lombard, Norman, Hohenstaufen and Angevin periods. Historical texts offer chronicles and histories; archival materials including accounts, tax, financial and commercial records, contracts, wills, notarial and government documents; poetry, romances, biographies and letters; liturgical and hagiographical texts; treatises on law, science, medicine, religion and philosophy; as well as examples of manuscript production, painting, architecture, and sculpture.
Resources include photos, video and sound, paintings, maps, drawings and engravings, ground plans and elevations.
“A Documentary History of Naples” presents a new publication format that combines print volumes with searchable online and downloadable texts, online bibliographies and image galleries, interactive Google mapping and Google Earth views to produce an ongoing and robust presentation of current research. It is a collaboration among religious and cultural, art and literary historians.
