A Companion to the Renaissance in Southern Italy (1350–1600)

Book excerpt: A Companion to the Renaissance in Southern Italy offers readers unfamiliar with Southern Italy an introduction to different aspects of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century history and culture of this vast and significant area of Europe, situated at the center of the Mediterranean. Commonly regarded as a backward, rural region untouched by the Italian Renaissance, the essays in this volume paint a rather different picture. The expert-written contributions present a general survey of the most recent research on the centers of southern Italy, as well as insight into the ground-breaking debates on wider themes, such as the definition of the city, continuity and discontinuity at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the effects of dynastic changes from the Angevin and Aragonese Kingdom to the Spanish Viceroyalty. Taken together, they form an essential resource on an important, yet all too often overlooked or misunderstood part of Renaissance Italy. Contributors: Giancarlo Abbamonte, David Abulafia, Guido Cappelli, Chiara De Caprio, Bianca de Divitiis, Fulvio Delle Donne, Teresa D’Urso, Dinko Fabris, Guido Giglioni, Antonietta Iacono, Fulvio Lenzo, Lorenzo Miletti, Francesco Montuori, Pasquale Palmieri, Eleni Sakellariou, Francesco Senatore, Francesco Storti, Pierluigi Terenzi, Carlo Vecce, Giuliana Vitale, and Andrea Zezza.