The State Archives of Naples ( it, ), with its more than 50,000 linear meters of book and document shelving,Maria Antonietta Macciocchi, ''Cara Eleonora: passione e morte della Fonseca Pimentel nella rivoluzione napoletana'', Rizzoli, 1993, p. 144. is of fundamental importance for the history of southern Italy from the 10th century to today. The archives are housed in the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

s of the Church of Saints Severino and Sossio.

Destruction during World War II

When Italy entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in 1940, it was decided to move the most valuable documents in the State Archives of Naples to the Montesano Villa near San Paolo Belsito. The historian Riccardo Filangieri, superintendent of the archives from 1934 to 1956, supervised the transfer of 30,000 volumes and 50,000 parchments in 866 cases. The less valuable contents were left in Naples.Riccardo Filangieri
"Report on the Destruction by the Germans, September 30, 1943, of the Depository of Priceless Historical Records of the Naples State Archives"
''The American Archivist'', Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1944), pp. 252–55. Following Italy's surrender on 8 September 1943, German troops occupied Naples and the surrounding region. On 27 September, a civilian uprising broke out in Naples. In San Paolo Belsito, a German soldier was killed. The Montesano Villa was visited by German soldiers the following day, and on 30 September they burned it to the ground, having given only fifteen minutes' warning. Filangieri pleaded with the commander in a letter, explaining that the documents were of historical interest only and that among them were important documents of the German

Staufer dynasty The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...

that had ruled southern Italy in 1194–1268, but he was ignored. Only eleven cases of notarial documents and 97 cartons of the Farnese Archives were saved. Among the documents lost were the ''

Catalogus Baronum The ''Catalogus Baronum'' ("Catalogue of the Barons") is a collection of registers of the military obligations owed by the barons of the Kingdom of Sicily. The collection was compiled in 1322 under the Angevin dynasty. It contains three distinct ...

'', the 378 chancery registers of the Angevin dynasty (1265–1435), the chancery registers of the

House of Barcelona The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty that ruled the County of Barcelona continuously from 878 and the Crown of Aragon from 1137 (as kings from 1162) until 1410. They descend from the Bellonids, the descendants of Wifred the Hairy. Th ...

in Sicily, the original treaties of the Kingdom of Naples, the greater part of the archives of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and part of the archives of the

Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

. Filangieri devoted the entire final part of his life to reconstructing, from various incomplete sources, the contents of the wealth of documents that had been destroyed, editing the first volumes of the ''Registri della Cancelleria Angioina'' published by the

Accademia Pontaniana The Accademia Pontaniana was the first academy in the modern sense, as a learned society for scholars and humanists and guided by a formal statute. Patronized by Alfonso V of Aragon, it was founded by the poet Antonio Beccadelli in Naples during ...

References

External links

Official website of the State Archives of Naples

Central Archives of the State (in Italian only)
Archives in Italy 19th-century establishments in the Kingdom of Naples 1808 establishments in Italy Libraries in Naples Destruction of buildings {{Italy-struct-stub

Destruction during World War II

See also

References

External links