Una città in fermento. Gli intellettuali napoletani e il ruolo del viceré Francisco de Benavides, IX conte di Santisteban (1688-1696)

Abstract

A city in ferment. Neapolitan intellectuals and the role of the Viceroy Francisco de Benavides, 9th Count of Santisteban (1688-1696)

This paper focuses on the cultural renewal in Naples during the last years of the 17th century, and in particular on the relationship between culture and civil life. It outlines the position taken by Francisco de Benavides, viceroy in Naples from 1688 to 1696, in the long and complicated anticurial polemic, through the defense of the modern philosophy professed by the members of the Accademia degli Investiganti, especially Francesco D’Andrea and Giuseppe Valletta. The viceroy not only frequented Giuseppe Valletta’s very rich library assiduously, but also defended Francesco D’Andrea against some unjust accusations. Some letters between the viceroy, the Spanish secretary Manuel Francisco de Lira, the president of the Sacred Royal Council Feliz de Lanzina y Ulloa and the regent of the Colateral Diego Soria de Morales, preserved in the Toledo seat of the Ducal Archives of Medinaceli and hitherto unpublished, bear witness to D’Andrea’s difficult political parable and highlight the support Benavides offered him in recruiting him to the offices of the Neapolitan bureaucracy.