Naples 1343 - by Amedeo Feniello (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A fresh perspective on the origins of the mafia, this gripping history illustrates the previously unknown extent of crime families' power in the early nation states of Europe. 1343: there is famine in Naples. After nightfall, a Genoese ship loaded with wheat is attacked by members of two local clans who brutally kill several sailors and their captain. The attackers returned to the city, greeted by the cheers of their countrymen, and the blind eye of the authorities. The Republic of Genoa presented the Kingdom of Naples with a formal protest against the incident. But, in a historical document of great importance today, King Charles I of Anjou admitted he did not control his own city, that the true rulers of Naples were the "family." The purpose of this book is not to retrace the birth of the Camorra through the traditional roads of ethnology, anthropology, sociology, or even folklore for the umpteenth time. Amedeo Feniello takes a new route through a number of previously unstudied elements and makes a unique observation: that these "families" of Naples were in power at the time of the birth of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples-one of the first European nation states. They would have been leaders of the new state, actively participating in the business of the royal family and serving as a new class of directors, officers, and bureaucrats"--

Book Synopsis

A fresh perspective on the early mafia as a means of resistance against invasion, this gripping history illustrates the previously unknown extent of these families' power in the 14th century.

1343: there is famine in Naples. After nightfall, a Genoese ship loaded with wheat is attacked by members of two local clans who brutally kill several sailors and their captain. The attackers returned to the city, greeted by the cheers of their countrymen, and the blind eye of the authorities. The Republic of Genoa presented the Kingdom of Naples with a formal protest against the incident. But, in a historical document of great importance today, King Charles I of Anjou admitted he did not control his own city, that the true rulers of Naples were the "family."

The purpose of this book is not to retrace the birth of the Camorra through the traditional roads of ethnology, anthropology, sociology, or even folklore for the umpteenth time. Amedeo Feniello takes a new route through a number of previously unstudied elements and makes a unique observation: that these "families" of Naples were in power at the time of the birth of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples--one of the first European nation states. They would have been leaders of the new state, actively participating in the business of the royal family and serving as a new class of directors, officers, and bureaucrats.

Review Quotes

"[Naples 1343] unravels not just a particular crime but a culture. The text has a fascinating meta quality; it's as much about the process of reconstructing a nearly 700-year-old event as the event itself...This history of place and culture reads like a detective story. Certain to intrigue historians, cultural anthropologists, and general readers alike." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Feniello's cutthroat book...reconstructs life and crime in Neapolitan history. Personal and inviting, with language that trades between academic and direct, this is a book built on the idea that the past reverberates in contemporary Italy." --Foreword Reviews

"It is Feniello's talent as a storyteller that makes the book worth reading, as he vividly depicts the daily life and struggles of medieval people...rewarding for the windows it opens onto the political and economic world of southern Italy in the Middle Ages, as well as for its thought-provoking argument connecting medieval violence to the current activities of the criminal clans." --History Today

"Naples 1343...makes an impassioned case that 14th-century Naples is where the Mafia got its start...Feniello looks at the parallels between the early days of organized crime and the early days of modern nations, and finds some unexpected links between the two." --InsideHook

"Feniello is an erudite historian who doesn't let his deep knowledge of his subject matter get in the way of a good anecdote." --CrimeReads

"If Naples was often said to be a 'paradise inhabited by devils, ' Amedeo Feniello, in this superb study, shows how these demons entered and then flourished--and how and why they continue to torment the South. Feniello crafts his arguments with expert precision and delivers them in a lively, engaging style. History writing at its finest." --Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome and The Shortest History of Italy

"Feniello not only puts forward an original, in some ways provocative, interpretation, but also offers a detailed fresco, spanning three centuries, of one of the most important realities in Europe." --Corriere della Sera

"A superb book...[Feniello] is a born storyteller." --Italia Oggi

About the Author

Amedeo Feniello teaches Medieval History in the Department of Social Science at the University of L'Aquila in Italy. He has taught and conducted research at the EHESS in Paris and at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Naples 1343 is his first book to appear in English.

Antony Shugaar is the author of a number of books and has translated hundreds of others, including Everything Is Broken Up and Dances by Edoardo Nesi and Guido Maria Brera, Notes on a Shipwreck by Davide Enia, and The Piranhas and Savage Kiss by Roberto Saviano. His translation of Gianni Rodari's Telephone Tales received the American Library Association's 2021 Batchelder Award.