I resoconti di guerra come fonte per la storia dell’architettura

War Accounts as a Source for Architectural History

Considering the limited number of primary sources available for the study of Neapolitan Renaissance art and architecture, war accounts can be seen as authentic, and in some cases unique, testimonies of the ideas circulating in 15th-century Naples and of the buildings which were erected during such period. Analysing the descriptions of Naples included in the De bello Neapolitano of Giovanni Pontano, in the De bello Italico of Bernardo Rucellai, in La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia of Marin Sanudo, and in the letters written from Naples by French soldiers and by Charles VIII, this essay intends to show how different types of accounts related to war events can contain descriptions or information which increase our knowledge of the antiquarian and architectural culture in Naples during the second half of the 15th century, as well as of its reception outside the Reign.