Southern Italy, 1300–1500

This article treats the south of Italy (Mezzogiorno), exclusive of the city of Naples. For discussion of Naples, see the Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation article “Naples, 1300–1700” by Ronald G. Musto. It also excludes Sicily, following the Italian government’s ISTAT and the European Union’s NUTS designations. Over the past two decades there has been an explosion of research into late medieval and early modern Southern Italy, mostly by Italian scholars in Naples and Rome. Southern Italy during these centuries coincides with the Kingdom of Naples (Regno). Its history reflects constant change, foreign influence, internal turmoil, local autonomy, resistance, innovation, and renewal. While these centuries have been intensely studied in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, the Angevin period (1265–1442) has attracted few Anglophone scholars, and mostly in art history and textual study. The Aragonese period (1442–1504) has been more fortunate as it coincides with Renaissance studies of humanism, the classical art impulse, and the new sciences. This bibliography therefore includes major works from both Anglophone and Continental scholars and divides entries according to these dynastic demarcations. There are three major historiographical issues in southern Italian studies. The first is the overwhelming prominence of Naples as the focus of most modern research, often eclipsing the rest of the South. The second is the fire-bombing of the Neapolitan state archives by retreating Nazis in September 1943 in which Angevin, Aragonese, and many earlier records were destroyed. Given the pan-Mediterranean interests and influence of the Neapolitan dynasties that controlled Southern Italy, however, we have been fortunate in the survival of copies of many records in Marseilles (Angevin) and Barcelona (Aragonese). From 1950 these have been meticulously reconstructed by a team headed by Riccardo Filangieri. Narrative sources were first systematically studied in Bartolommeo Capasso in 1902. Important chronicles, diaries, relazioni, and archival materials survive and have been published, many with recent editions. Italian scholars, largely at the University of Naples Federico II, have also undertaken comprehensive philological and contextual studies placing these works within Latin and vernacular literatures and literacies. The third historiographical issue is the Question of the South, treated in the next section. This bibliography is not exhaustive. It focuses on recent representative editions, monographs, collected essays, and articles. With some exceptions, earlier works and important journals of national and local research can be found within the notes and bibliographies of the works presented here.

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