Tales of Two Cities

Early modern Florence and Naples were important cities at the nexus of global cultural, political and economic networks. Their multicultural urban sphere fostered international mobility and the spread of news and information. Governmental and elite palaces, public buildings, busy streets and crowded squares became centres for the construction of propaganda and dissent that was manifested through public performances, rumours, animated debates and the circulation of material such as avvisi, broadsheets and anonymous compositions. The multidisciplinary approach of this volume explores the social and ideological impact of urban communication in Florence and Naples, with various case studies analysing the extent to which the dissemination of information shaped consensus, dissent and communities’ attitudes towards gender, minorities, otherness as well as the marginalised.

• Vincenzo Caputo, Lorenza Gianfrancesco, Pasquale Palmieri, Introduction
• I. Cities at the Crossroads: Geopolitics and Communication
• Lorenza Gianfrancesco, “Desirous of War and Discord”: The Duke of Osuna and the Neapolitan Public Sphere, 1616-1618
• Francesco Benigno, An Intriguing Correspondence: The Duke of Arcos’ Information Network in a Time of Revolt (Naples, 1646-1647)
• Davide Boerio, News from Naples (1647-1648): Communicative Effects, Public Spaces and the Media Landscape
• Francesca Fausta Gallo, On the Streets of Naples: Urban Populations and the Circulation of News on the Eve of the War of Spanish Succession
• II. Plague in the Two Cities: Emergency and Communication
• Brendan Dooley, A Plague of News: Florence, 1629-1633
• Idamaria Fusco, The “Government” of News in a Time of Plague: Naples in 1656 Between Myths and Truth
• Silvana D’Alessio, The Dawn of the Epidemic in Naples (1656)
• III. The Cities of Justice: Scandals and Trials
• Lucio Biasiori, Samuela Marconcini, Public Secrets: Vitale Medici’s Conversion and Its Impact on the Social, Religious and Urban Landscape of Early Modern Florence
• Giuseppe Mrozek Eliszezynski, Accusations of Crypto-Judaism and a Heinous Murder: Two Newsworthy Political Scandals in the Naples of Viceroy Peñaranda
• Lisa Roscioni, “Il Gran Processo a Tutti Noto”: Scandal, Memory and Writings on Infamy in the Public Sphere (Florence, 17th-18th Centuries)
• Vincenzo Lagioia, “Magnified Beyond the Truth”: Defamatory Writing Surrounding the Last Grand Duke of Tuscany
• Pasquale Palmieri, Two Tales of One City: Justice and Epidemic in 1764 Naples
• IV. Stories in the Two Cities: Fiction and Non-Fiction
• Vincenzo Caputo, “From the Beauty of the Conquered Beach”: Don John, Naples and Lepanto in Tomaso Costo’s Account
• Giovanna Rizzarelli, Microhistory and Accounts of Exceptional Events in the Pages of Anton Francesco Doni
• Stefano Calonaci, “An Affair That Deserves to be Remembered for Many Reasons”: Fama and a Story of Love and Death in Florentine High Society (1652)
• Luca Marangolo, Forms of Narration in the Nuove System: Two Cases of “Ambivalence” Between Literary Fiction and News Circulation in the Narrative Forms of the Ancien Régime
• Index of Names
• Contributors

Cover illustration: Baccio del Bianco (?), The Plague in Florence in 1630, Florence, Misericordia di Firenze Museum; Domenico Gargiulo, The Eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, Naples, National Museum of San Martino.

• Francesco Benigno

• Lucio Biasori

• Davide Boerio

• Stefano Calonaci

• Vincenzo Caputo

• Silvana D’Alessio

• Brendan Dooley

• Idamaria Fusco

• Francesca Fausta Gallo

• Lorenza Gianfrancesco

• Vincenzo Lagioia

• Luca Marangolo

• Samuela Marconcini

• Giuseppe Mrozek Eliszezynski

• Pasquale Palmieri

• Giovanna Rizzarelli

• Lisa Roscioni

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