Naples in the Eighteenth Century: The Birth and Death of a Nation State (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture)

In 1734 the kingdom of Naples became an independent monarchy, but in 1799 a Jacobin revolution transformed it briefly into a republic. In these few but intense decades of independence all the great problems of the age of the Enlightenment became apparent: attacks on feudalism and on the power of the Catholic Church, the struggle for a modern economy, and aspirations to change the administrative machinery and the judicial system. Yet Naples was also the city visited by Winckelmann and Goethe, the city of Sir William Hamilton, of the study of Pompeii and Herculanum, and of the greatest musicians of the age. This collection of essays addresses a range of issues in the city's political and cultural history, and demonstrates the city's importance in shaping the modern, enlightened culture of Europe. This volume of essays offers a series of new insights into the "age of the Enlightenment," not only in Italy but throughout Europe. In its political reforms, intended to attack feudalism and the Church and to modernize the economic and judicial systems, Naples was influenced by European culture. But Naples also exercised a strong influence on European culture: the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the musical culture of the city, had great importance in shaping the modern, enlightened culture of Europe. The events involving the capital and the provinces in the Kingdom of Naples in the eighteenth century cannot be fully understood without taking into account the complex relationship that had always linked these two realities. "These essays address a range of issues in the political and cultural history of Naples in the 'age of the Enlightenment', and demonstrate the city's importance in shaping the modern culture of Europe."--Jacket