Author Description

Good Government in Spanish Naples provides a narrative historical overview which links six essays from the latest research of prominent scholars in the rich, contemporary school of Neapolitan historiography. The essays examine the political and administrative structure of the Kingdom of Naples, problems of agricultural production and demographic rationale in the countryside, and social welfare and fiscal manipulation in the capital that lead to the 1647 Masaniello revolt. The riches of Neapolitan culture and the crisis and catastrophe of its politics initiates us into the reasons for the decline of the Italian South and Italy as a whole after the Renaissance. Naples emerges not as a decadent, «refeudalized» state, but as a test case for understanding the limits of the early modern state in managing conflict and moderating crises.