Photograph: EAHN

la cattedrale di napoli. storia, architettura, storiografia di un monumento medievale
Vinni lucherini

Rome: Collection de l’École française de Rome, Rome 2009, 448 pp., colour and b/w ill., € 43
ISBN 978-2-7283-0852-1

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Naples cathedral, which is dedicated to the Assumption, can be considered one of the most prominent extant examples of European medieval architecture. Begun in 1294, when Naples was ruled by Charles II of Anjou ruled Naples, the cathedral we see today is the result of many layers of construction and restorations. Lucherini’s study La cattedrale di Napoli: Storia, architettura, storiografia di un monumento medievale book succeeds in the difficult task of revealing the obscure and extremely complex origins of this building. In particular, the book focuses on the complex relationship between the Angevin monument and the remains of the pre-existing basilica, known as Santa Restituta, portions of which are still recognizable in the large lateral chapel along the North aisle.

In the first chapter Lucherini challenges one of the most deeply rooted theories in the church’s historiography, according to which the Neapolitan cathedral was built on the site of two pre-existing ancient Basilicas: one dedicatentitled to the Saviour, known also as the Stefania, which would supposedly have been completely destroyed to create space for the transept of the new building; the other entitled to Santa Restituta, which was only partly torn down to allow the construction of the three aisles of the new church. By means of an extremely detailed philological analysis of all the written sources, the author demonstrates how the existence of the two cathedrals corresponds to an “‘invented tradition.”’ This was a strategical rusely created and used at the beginning of the eighteenth -century by a cathedral body known as the ebdomadari, who were less important than the canons of the cathedral Chapter,  but who sought to claim descent from the Chapter of the no longer existing Stefania, thus ‘establishing’ claiming an equal status to the catherdral’s canons, this, in order to defend their right to burial prerogatives benefit from funeral rights and the use of the Cathedral’s cross. By showing how this juridical controversy gradually affected the cathedral’s all the subsequent historiography of the Cathedral, Lucherini convincingly demonstrates that only one basilica preceded-existed the Angevin construction: this was the Stefania, which was subsequently rededicated to Santa Restituta, whose remains of which are still visible today.

In the second chapter By through a careful analysis of the Gesta Episcoporum Neapolitanorum, Lucherini in the second chapter sheds new light on the architecture, the liturgical furnishings, and and the sacred topography of the original Stefania, from its founddationg in during the eighth century, through to its the refashioning works in up until the tenth century. The author interestingly discusses the the bishops’ propagandistic program undertaken by ofthe bishops by transferring the corpses of their predecessors and of various city martyrs from their original burial places to the first Neapolitan cathedral, where their sepulchres were systematically decorated with effigies. Lucherini also sheds new light on the dual role played by the Stefania and the Basilica of San Gennaro extra moenia, which acted as the two major poles of the religious, ceremonial, and sepulchral preferences of the Duchy of Naples between the eighth and ninth centuries. Furthermore, a detailed description of the geopolitical reorientation of Naples from the sphere of the Byzantine Empire to that of the Papacy provides the context for a discussion of the architectural and artistic references to Saint Peter and the Lateran in the refashioning of the southern part of the Stefania.

Relying on literary written sources such as the Vita Sancti Aspreni, as well as on surviving documents, in chapter three Lucherini analyses the delicate passage transition from the Stefania, which in the meantime had been dedicated to Santa Restituta, to the new Angevin cathedral, demonstrating the exclusive role of episcopal patronage in the construction of the new building between 1294 and 1317. The author reconstructs the evolution of the building site of the new church and the progressive shift of functions and objects from the old basilica, such as the relocation of the Angevin royal burials, whose controversial position in the apse of the new Cathedral cathedral is accurately discussed.
In the fourth and last chapter Lucherini summarizes the major restorations carried out over the centuries, as a means of identifying medieval traces under beneath the Baroque forms of the Stefania/Santa Restituta. A substantial appendix of documents gives us the measure ofshows how the findings of this book are grounded in considerable new research based on primary and secondary sources. The author voluntarily intentionally pays less attention to the material sources, considering that “‘the history of the Cathedral of Naples can by no means ignore leave out of consideration the history of its historiographical tradition”’ (p. 151). By bringing together an accurate philological analysis of the written sources and a discussion of the Stefania and of the new Angevin cathedral within the context of medieval pan-European architecture between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries, this book subverts three hundred years of Neapolitan historiography and provides a new understanding to one of the most obscure and overlooked periods of Neapolitan history.

Bianca de Divitiis
(Università di Napoli, Federico II University of Naples)