Main Content
Summary
Author: Sersale, Benedetto
Title: Discorso istorico intorno alla capella de' signori Minutoli sotto il titolo di S. Pietro Apostolo e di S. Anastasia Martire dentro il duomo napoletano.... In questa seconda edizione corretto, ed accresciuto cosi' delle postille lasciate abozzate dall'autore sull aprima, che di alcune altre giunte utili, e necessarie.
Publication: Napoli, Stamperia Raimondiana 1778.
Price: £975
Reference: 07060
Full Description
4to. (12)+96pp, incl. engr title vignette, fdlg engr frontis & (1 )fldg plate. Contemporary paper wrappers, repaired for tears to edges and spine. Occasional light foxing. Recent ownership stamp on front free endpaper.
A scarce and interesting history of one of the side chapels in the Cathedral of S. Gennaro in Naples, dedicated to SS Peter and Anastasia, and sponsored for centuries by the powerful Minutoli family, who provided the city during the Middle Ages with a number of archbishops and cardinals. Sersale's aim was however more than to record the history of the family and their chapel, for he was also attempting to prove that the chapel was much older than scholars thought. The cathedral itself was founded by Charles I of Anjou towards the end of the thirteenth century, and with it, one would think, the family chapel, but Sersale's argument stems from the fact that the sixth century church of Sta. Restituta was incorporated into the fabric of the present cathedral, having been preserved under one of two bell-towers erected by Stefano II, Bishop of Naples, in the ninth century.