Mazzella was a Neapolitan writer and
historian born around the middle of the 1500s, probably on
the island of Procida. He likely
died in Naples at the beginning of the 1600s. (As you can tell, we don't know too
much about his personal life!) His published works
started to appear in the 1580s, and he is still highly
regarded for his attention to detail. In that sense, then,
it is better to call him a cyclopedist, if by
"historian" you mean
someone concerned with the social interpretation of
human events, how society progresses, etc. That is not
Mazzella. His best-known work is Desscrittione del
Regno di Napoli (Description of the Kingdom of
Naples) (Napoli, G.B. Cappello, 1586, 2nd ed.
1601. Frontispiece, image, right). The book was a
monarch's dream—tell me everything about my kingdom! It
is not didactic, not philosophy, not Vico or Marx. It is
what it claims to be —a description. A good one. He also had a
precise interest in the habits, customs and rituals of
people he was writing about; thus, the book is not as dry
as the title suggests.
The "Decription of the Kingdom" is still considered
an authoritative source about the first century of the existence
of the kingdom of Naples as a Spanish vice-realm, a very
turbulent time. The 1500s saw great growth in Naples under
viceroy Toledo but also
saw great crises in Europe, in general, such as the
Battle of Lepanto in 1577
and in Spain, which ruled Naples, such as the loss of the
Spanish Armada in 1588. The book was translated into
English and provided valuable historical background on
Spanish Naples for later English-language descriptions of
Masaniello's revolt of
1647 (for example, James Howell's, A history of
the late revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples,
London, 1652, relies on it). Later
Neapolitan historians, as well, have used Mazzella’s work
in their own descriptions of Naples in the 1500s.
Description of the Kingdom of
Naples was published in two volumes. They contain a
vast amount of information. There is an overview of the 12
provinces of the kingdom: Terra di Lavoro, Principato
Citra, Principato Ultra, Basilicata, Calabria Citra,
Calabria Ultra, Terra d’Otranto, Terra di Bari, Abruzzo
Citra, Abruzzo Ultra, Contado di Molise and Capitanata,
listing major and minor cities and towns, as well as
significant castles, forts, towers, casali,
masserie(large
fortified estates) and other defensive structures. There
is also an account of who paid taxes to the crown and how
much they paid. The work, indeed, provides a census of the kingdom,
the number of households and number of inhabitants broken
down into occupation and social class. (The Spanish had brought with them to
Naples in the very early 1500s the idea of a new “urban
elite," a new wealthy social class distinct from the
nobility. Mazzella provides descriptions of important
families and persons of this class.) The
census also covers the armed forces of the kingdom, how many
soldiers and sailors there were and where they were
recruited. There is a thorough historical list of the noble
classes going back to the first dynasty, the Normans —the sovereigns,
princes and dukes. There is also a list of noteworthy
geographical features in the kingdom— lakes, rivers, thermal
springs, mountains. As well, there are descriptions of local
customs throughout the kingdom. Mazzella pays particular
attention to religious worship —churches, sacred relics,
etc.
Mazzella’s other well-known work is entitled Sito
et antichità della città di Pozzuoli (Napoli, O.
Salviani, 1591) (The Site and Antiquity of Pozzuoli) It is a look at this
ancient city, just up the coast from Naples, originally
called Dicaearchia ("Just Government") by the
founding Greeks in the middle of the sixth century 600 BC.
The work went through a second edition in 1606, expanded
by the addition of newer maps. The treatment is thorough.
Mazzella’s attention to local customs and religious
rituals provides us with such gems as the fact that a
local peak on the nearby Gauro
crater is named Mount of Christ or Mount of
the Saviour because of local belief that Lake Averno in
Pozzuoli, the traditional descent into Hell in classical
mythology, was also where Christ, himself, descended into
Hell in the three days between His death and resurrection.
sources:
Gardiner, Patrick. (ed.) Theories of History. Free
Press (Macmillan) New York. 1959.
Ventura, Piero. "Mazzelli, Scipione" in the
Treccani Encyclopedia, Biographical
Dictionary of Italians (2008). Salvi, Selene
and Daniela Marra. La Montagna Sacra (The
Sacred Mountain) on the website of Napoli Underground
at this link.