Napoli nobilissima
“Napoli nobilissima”, with its long tradition, is one of the oldest Italian journals and is the oldest in existence dealing with the cultural heritage of Naples and Southern Italy. It has been published, with ups and downs and even long breaks, since 1892, when Riccardo Carafa d’Andria, Giuseppe Ceci, Luigi Conforti, Benedetto Croce, Salvatore di Giacomo, Michelangelo Schipa, and Vittorio Spinazzola founded it with the subtitle a Journal of Topography and Neapolitan Art while establishing an association whose statutory aims were “to illustrate the topography and monuments of Naples and its environs, to promote knowledge, and to keep watch on (...) the preservation of the monuments” themselves.
The journal has continued without interruption since 1961 when Roberto Pane resumed publication with a 3rd series – the 1st had ended in 1906, and the 2nd, directed by Giuseppe Ceci and Aldo De Rinaldis, had a short life (1920/1922) – with a new and more modern subtitle: “Journal of Fine Arts, Archeology, and City Planning” and a stronger emphasis on the specialized nature of the journal itself and, at the same time, a “rigorous fidelity” to its original program and therefore to the needs, unchanged over time, to further the knowledge and protection of the territory.
The 3rd, 4th (1987-1999), 5th (2000-2009), and 6th series (2010-2014), all published by "L’Arte Tipografica" – owned by Angelo Rossi senior and then by his sons Ruggiero and Angelo junior – were fundamentally in continuance with the original project while introducing some adjustments in working methods. Whereas Raffaele Mormone, director of the 4th series, had clarified and confirmed Pane’s program – "first-hand philological research, communication, teaching, and civic involvement" – for the 5th series, begun in 2000, the executive board (Ferdinando Bologna, Mario Del Treppo, Giorgio Fulco, Giuseppe Galasso, Marcello Gigante, Giulio Pane, and Pasquale Villani) and the editorial board, coordinated by Stefano Palmieri, gave a wider scope to the concept of cultural heritage – "from artifacts to books, musical instruments to ex votos, library manuscripts to archival holdings, monuments to the environment” – changed the subtitle to “Journal of the Arts, Philology, and History”, while opening its pages not only to archaeologists and historians of art and architecture, but also philologists and historians tout court, while seeking "a new balance between conservation, protection, promotion, and fruition, and between information and education of the public", while offering its own "contribution of ideas and projects, in the belief that the recomposition of the unity of humanistic knowledge is more beneficial than monothematic specialization, which so often determines a separateness and incommunicability of cultural experiences and a consequent lack of dialogue, which unfortunately characterizes our times”.
The current 7th series has a new publisher, arte’m, a new ownership of the journal, a new director in charge, a new executive, and a renewed scientific committee, editorial board, and editorial secretariat, but holds true to the course set by the history of the journal and in particular to the intentions of its latest series.
“Napoli nobilissima” is a hospitable and rigorous home for both experts and worthy young scholars of various disciplines (Philology, Archeology, History of Art, Architecture, Music, and Literature). It is a place of debate where the heritage and all the expressions of Ancient and Modern Art are studied in a perspective which, from Naples and Southern Italy, looks to Europe and to the world at large.
Address: www.napolinobilissima.net
The journal has continued without interruption since 1961 when Roberto Pane resumed publication with a 3rd series – the 1st had ended in 1906, and the 2nd, directed by Giuseppe Ceci and Aldo De Rinaldis, had a short life (1920/1922) – with a new and more modern subtitle: “Journal of Fine Arts, Archeology, and City Planning” and a stronger emphasis on the specialized nature of the journal itself and, at the same time, a “rigorous fidelity” to its original program and therefore to the needs, unchanged over time, to further the knowledge and protection of the territory.
The 3rd, 4th (1987-1999), 5th (2000-2009), and 6th series (2010-2014), all published by "L’Arte Tipografica" – owned by Angelo Rossi senior and then by his sons Ruggiero and Angelo junior – were fundamentally in continuance with the original project while introducing some adjustments in working methods. Whereas Raffaele Mormone, director of the 4th series, had clarified and confirmed Pane’s program – "first-hand philological research, communication, teaching, and civic involvement" – for the 5th series, begun in 2000, the executive board (Ferdinando Bologna, Mario Del Treppo, Giorgio Fulco, Giuseppe Galasso, Marcello Gigante, Giulio Pane, and Pasquale Villani) and the editorial board, coordinated by Stefano Palmieri, gave a wider scope to the concept of cultural heritage – "from artifacts to books, musical instruments to ex votos, library manuscripts to archival holdings, monuments to the environment” – changed the subtitle to “Journal of the Arts, Philology, and History”, while opening its pages not only to archaeologists and historians of art and architecture, but also philologists and historians tout court, while seeking "a new balance between conservation, protection, promotion, and fruition, and between information and education of the public", while offering its own "contribution of ideas and projects, in the belief that the recomposition of the unity of humanistic knowledge is more beneficial than monothematic specialization, which so often determines a separateness and incommunicability of cultural experiences and a consequent lack of dialogue, which unfortunately characterizes our times”.
The current 7th series has a new publisher, arte’m, a new ownership of the journal, a new director in charge, a new executive, and a renewed scientific committee, editorial board, and editorial secretariat, but holds true to the course set by the history of the journal and in particular to the intentions of its latest series.
“Napoli nobilissima” is a hospitable and rigorous home for both experts and worthy young scholars of various disciplines (Philology, Archeology, History of Art, Architecture, Music, and Literature). It is a place of debate where the heritage and all the expressions of Ancient and Modern Art are studied in a perspective which, from Naples and Southern Italy, looks to Europe and to the world at large.
Address: www.napolinobilissima.net
less
Uploads
Museum of San Martino. Assembled in 1870-1875, they chronicle the urban transformation of Piazza Municipio,
one of the foremost representative places of the city administration. These photos are a rare example of a highly specific
genre, viz., documentation for the purpose of technical surveying, which little is known about today, even though it
was practiced in Naples by renowned photographers such as Alphonse Bernoud, Giorgio Sommer, and Giacomo Arena.
Thanks to these inedited photographs, it has been possible to put together a more complete biographical sketch of
Arena, the author of the images illustrated in the present essay, hitherto known mainly as a portrait photographer.
The present essay focuses on the works of Goethe and Tischbein in order through them to enlarge on the concept of ut pictura poesis in European aesthetics during the second half of the eighteenth century. It sets the tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris in relation to the painting Iphigenia and Orestes and to drawings and paintings by friends of Goethe’s between Rome and Naples, in a cultural environment that was international in scope and in sympathy with freemasonry. Letters, autobiographies, and literary and visual works by the above-mentioned artists are analyzed and their aesthetic and ethical motivations interpreted. Specifically works by Melchior Kraus, Friedrich Bury, Angelika Kauffmann, and especially Wilhelm Tischbein, who is commonly seen as the artist culturally closest to Goethe. The essay also looks closely at Tischbein’s North-European formation and how that played a role during his directorship of the Accademia del Disegno in Naples between 1789 and 1799.
Museum of San Martino. Assembled in 1870-1875, they chronicle the urban transformation of Piazza Municipio,
one of the foremost representative places of the city administration. These photos are a rare example of a highly specific
genre, viz., documentation for the purpose of technical surveying, which little is known about today, even though it
was practiced in Naples by renowned photographers such as Alphonse Bernoud, Giorgio Sommer, and Giacomo Arena.
Thanks to these inedited photographs, it has been possible to put together a more complete biographical sketch of
Arena, the author of the images illustrated in the present essay, hitherto known mainly as a portrait photographer.
The present essay focuses on the works of Goethe and Tischbein in order through them to enlarge on the concept of ut pictura poesis in European aesthetics during the second half of the eighteenth century. It sets the tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris in relation to the painting Iphigenia and Orestes and to drawings and paintings by friends of Goethe’s between Rome and Naples, in a cultural environment that was international in scope and in sympathy with freemasonry. Letters, autobiographies, and literary and visual works by the above-mentioned artists are analyzed and their aesthetic and ethical motivations interpreted. Specifically works by Melchior Kraus, Friedrich Bury, Angelika Kauffmann, and especially Wilhelm Tischbein, who is commonly seen as the artist culturally closest to Goethe. The essay also looks closely at Tischbein’s North-European formation and how that played a role during his directorship of the Accademia del Disegno in Naples between 1789 and 1799.