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Between Salt Water and Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy
"Lucid, evocative, and richly detailed." ―Jay Parini The history of southern Italy is entirely distinct from that of northern Italy, yet it has never been given its own due. In this authoritative and wholly engrossing history, distinguished scholar Tommaso Astarita "does a masterful job of correcting this error" (Mark Knoblauch, Booklist ). From the Normans and Angevins, through Spanish and Bourbon rule, to the unification of Italy in 1860, Astarita rescues Sicily and the worlds south of Rome from the dustier folds of history and restores them to sparkling life. We are introduced to the colorful religious observances, the vibrant historical figures, the diverse population, the ancient ruins, beautiful landscapes, sweet music, and magnificent art―all of which inspired visitors to claim that one had to "see Naples, and then die."
354 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 23, 2013
Astarita's book would have gotten 4 stars had the book been marketed as focusing solely on Naples. But the title makes one believe that one is getting a history of all of Southern Italy when it is Naples that the book is mainly about. His bias as a Neapolitan is clear. It is an otherwise interesting history but I felt that the rest of Southern Italy was given short shrift.
August 27, 2020
Fantastic read about the history of the bottom half of il bel paese. If you love Italy, love Napoli and environs south of Rome, definitely pick this one up.
February 8, 2025
History of southern Italy, the region south of Rome, the Mezzogiorno, though is primarily on Naples and Sicily. It is at times more popular and at times a bit academic, but I found very readable. The book goes as far back as the Ancient Greek settlements in southern Italy and in the final chapter takes the reader all the way up to the early 2000s, but those are brief bookends to the main story. Though there is a lot on the Normans in southern Italy in the Middle Ages, the book is primarily on 15th-19th century Naples and to a lesser extent Sicily, covering the political and cultural history of the Kingdom of Naples (1282-1816), the Kingdom of Sicily (1130-1816), and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816-1861), the founding of these political entities, prominent people and historic events, the style and the effects of different foreign rulers, major cultural and economic elements, and what caused their end.
Two prominent themes in the book are how and why Naples was for centuries on par with Paris, one of the largest and the most cultured cities in all of Europe, and why rural areas of southern Italy were so impoverished and considered more akin to Africa or Asia than Europe. That while Naples was such a major cultural hub of Europe from the 15th to the 19th centuries, that it is “difficult to understand European music or art in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries without considering those produced in Naples” and an “eighteenth-century gentleman’s education was not complete without a prolonged stay in the Italian South,” the people of southern Italy were often regarded as “entirely alien to European and modern realities,” quite distant from modern Europe in “economic, social, political, and spiritual terms,” that in “a sense Naples and the South have always been both deeply of Europe an at the same time outside it” and the “people of the South were at once the true heirs of the ancient Greeks and the most savage of all Europeans.” As a result, the book is as much a celebration of the great art of especially Naples, with a lot of coverage of opera (especially comic opera or opera buffa), of art (like _Christ Crowning Roger II King of Sicily_ mosaic in the church of the Martorana in Palermo and _The Flagellation of Christ_ by Caravaggio, who spent quite a bit of time in Naples), architecture (such as the Chapel of San Gennaro in Naples, begun in 1608 and “the focus of great rivalries among artists”), quite a bit on the Grand Tour and its inclusion of the archaeological, music, artistic, and geological wonders of Naples and the region, and a rather good review of the works of literature associated with or from the region (Théophile Gautier’s _Jettatura_, the great verismo or Realist author Giovanni Verga’s many stories set in rural Sicily, Carlo Levi’s _Christ Stopped at Eboli_, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s _The Leopard_ for example) as it is a historical account of the deep, centuries old roots of rural poverty and misery in rural southern Italy.
I was surprised at how deep the roots of land use in southern Italy are, going back to Norman times: “Under the Normans the southern landscape acquired features that are still apparent…villages developed on hilltops or mountains, where they were better protected from attackers (pirates or soldiers) and the malaria that lurked in the plains,” a pattern “reinforced by the vast estates that grew with the introduction of the feudal system” and today “much of the southern countryside is marked by rare scattered farms and by large, often hilly villages that are separated from each other by significant distances.” Indeed, the Normans helped established both the “strongest state in Italy” in the form of the Kingdom of Sicily, one that would be “a prominent player on the European and Mediterranean political scenes,” they also with the spread of the feudal system “contributed greatly to the formation of a rigid and polarized society, especially in the countryside,” one that “crystallized harsh conditions of exploitation that affected the great majority of the southern rural population” though to be fair, later rulers and regional powers if anything strengthened these traits.
The book can also be read in ways that would help the student of European wide subjects, such as the Spanish Empire, the art and culture of the Baroque Era, the Enlightenment, the Romantic movement, the challenges of managing early modern European cities, the Grand Tour, how such things were expressed in the region and how they affected Europe and were affected by Europe and simply as examples of the time. The reader gets especially quite a bit on Baroque art, architecture, music, and also the mechanizations of Spanish rule, as Spain ruled the region for quite some time.
There is a good bit on how outsiders viewed the character of the Neapolitan people, “the theatrical, competitive performance aspects of Neapolitan popular life, and…its loud, external character” and discussed some sociological aspects such the lazzari, the Neapolitan lower classes.
There is a brief section on emigration, noting among other things between 1876 and 1914 close to 5 million Italians went to the United States and of those, “three out of four of the Italians who emigrated to the United States came from the South."
Has several black and white illustrations throughout the text, either contemporary visual art or photographs of various buildings. A helpful map towards the front of the book. Has at the back genealogy charts of Norman, Swabian, Angevin, Aragonese, Spanish, and Bourbon rulers, an extensive section of notes, and an index.
Two prominent themes in the book are how and why Naples was for centuries on par with Paris, one of the largest and the most cultured cities in all of Europe, and why rural areas of southern Italy were so impoverished and considered more akin to Africa or Asia than Europe. That while Naples was such a major cultural hub of Europe from the 15th to the 19th centuries, that it is “difficult to understand European music or art in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries without considering those produced in Naples” and an “eighteenth-century gentleman’s education was not complete without a prolonged stay in the Italian South,” the people of southern Italy were often regarded as “entirely alien to European and modern realities,” quite distant from modern Europe in “economic, social, political, and spiritual terms,” that in “a sense Naples and the South have always been both deeply of Europe an at the same time outside it” and the “people of the South were at once the true heirs of the ancient Greeks and the most savage of all Europeans.” As a result, the book is as much a celebration of the great art of especially Naples, with a lot of coverage of opera (especially comic opera or opera buffa), of art (like _Christ Crowning Roger II King of Sicily_ mosaic in the church of the Martorana in Palermo and _The Flagellation of Christ_ by Caravaggio, who spent quite a bit of time in Naples), architecture (such as the Chapel of San Gennaro in Naples, begun in 1608 and “the focus of great rivalries among artists”), quite a bit on the Grand Tour and its inclusion of the archaeological, music, artistic, and geological wonders of Naples and the region, and a rather good review of the works of literature associated with or from the region (Théophile Gautier’s _Jettatura_, the great verismo or Realist author Giovanni Verga’s many stories set in rural Sicily, Carlo Levi’s _Christ Stopped at Eboli_, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s _The Leopard_ for example) as it is a historical account of the deep, centuries old roots of rural poverty and misery in rural southern Italy.
I was surprised at how deep the roots of land use in southern Italy are, going back to Norman times: “Under the Normans the southern landscape acquired features that are still apparent…villages developed on hilltops or mountains, where they were better protected from attackers (pirates or soldiers) and the malaria that lurked in the plains,” a pattern “reinforced by the vast estates that grew with the introduction of the feudal system” and today “much of the southern countryside is marked by rare scattered farms and by large, often hilly villages that are separated from each other by significant distances.” Indeed, the Normans helped established both the “strongest state in Italy” in the form of the Kingdom of Sicily, one that would be “a prominent player on the European and Mediterranean political scenes,” they also with the spread of the feudal system “contributed greatly to the formation of a rigid and polarized society, especially in the countryside,” one that “crystallized harsh conditions of exploitation that affected the great majority of the southern rural population” though to be fair, later rulers and regional powers if anything strengthened these traits.
The book can also be read in ways that would help the student of European wide subjects, such as the Spanish Empire, the art and culture of the Baroque Era, the Enlightenment, the Romantic movement, the challenges of managing early modern European cities, the Grand Tour, how such things were expressed in the region and how they affected Europe and were affected by Europe and simply as examples of the time. The reader gets especially quite a bit on Baroque art, architecture, music, and also the mechanizations of Spanish rule, as Spain ruled the region for quite some time.
There is a good bit on how outsiders viewed the character of the Neapolitan people, “the theatrical, competitive performance aspects of Neapolitan popular life, and…its loud, external character” and discussed some sociological aspects such the lazzari, the Neapolitan lower classes.
There is a brief section on emigration, noting among other things between 1876 and 1914 close to 5 million Italians went to the United States and of those, “three out of four of the Italians who emigrated to the United States came from the South."
Has several black and white illustrations throughout the text, either contemporary visual art or photographs of various buildings. A helpful map towards the front of the book. Has at the back genealogy charts of Norman, Swabian, Angevin, Aragonese, Spanish, and Bourbon rulers, an extensive section of notes, and an index.
January 25, 2022
Having lived in Italy for several years I have always had an interest in southern Italy in particular. Americans don’t realize how many stereotypes come from the south as opposed to Rome, Florence and Venice, the most visited cities. But our idea of the emotional Italian, singing Neapolitan songs on the street, and heck, even pizza, all of this comes from Naples and south of there. There is a reason for this stereotype of course, something like 90% of Italian Americans hail from Sicily, so there is a good helping of southern influence in Italian-American culture.
But this book is not solely a cultural history, so be prepared to go way way back to prehistory, ancient Greek settlements of the south, ancient Rome, Norman conquest of Sicily, and finally to Naples, which grew under the Spanish crown to be an extremely influential center of culture. I took away a star because the book focuses almost exclusively on Sicily in the beginning and then Naples after that. I wanted to hear more about the hinterland of southern Italy but maybe there just isn’t a lot of information. It was so isolated for so many years, there weren’t even proper roads. The author, a Neapolitan himself, obviously loves his city but I feel like he was a little too focused on Naples alone. The rest of the south, mostly agricultural and dirt poor has suffered accordingly and you still see the effects of that today. The southern regions are the poorest in Italy and also becoming sparsely populated as the younger generations go north to Milan and Turin looking for work.
The pages regarding the unification of Italy in the mid-1800s were a little rushed but I was gratified to see that Garibaldi, whom most people consider a hero along the lines of George Washington during the revolutionary war, got his just desserts in this book. Garibaldi and his soldiers terrorized the south, forcing them into unification that was at their huge disadvantage. It’s a story not well-known outside of Italy and deserves to be better understood. But I don’t think this is the best book for that. I don’t know if there is one in English.
If anything, the descriptions of historical Naples are very intriguing and it’s a colorful city to this day, and one not to be missed on your next trip to Italy, despite its seedy reputation. “ See Naples and die“, the saying goes. Take it from me as one who has been lucky enough to visit. I concur.
But this book is not solely a cultural history, so be prepared to go way way back to prehistory, ancient Greek settlements of the south, ancient Rome, Norman conquest of Sicily, and finally to Naples, which grew under the Spanish crown to be an extremely influential center of culture. I took away a star because the book focuses almost exclusively on Sicily in the beginning and then Naples after that. I wanted to hear more about the hinterland of southern Italy but maybe there just isn’t a lot of information. It was so isolated for so many years, there weren’t even proper roads. The author, a Neapolitan himself, obviously loves his city but I feel like he was a little too focused on Naples alone. The rest of the south, mostly agricultural and dirt poor has suffered accordingly and you still see the effects of that today. The southern regions are the poorest in Italy and also becoming sparsely populated as the younger generations go north to Milan and Turin looking for work.
The pages regarding the unification of Italy in the mid-1800s were a little rushed but I was gratified to see that Garibaldi, whom most people consider a hero along the lines of George Washington during the revolutionary war, got his just desserts in this book. Garibaldi and his soldiers terrorized the south, forcing them into unification that was at their huge disadvantage. It’s a story not well-known outside of Italy and deserves to be better understood. But I don’t think this is the best book for that. I don’t know if there is one in English.
If anything, the descriptions of historical Naples are very intriguing and it’s a colorful city to this day, and one not to be missed on your next trip to Italy, despite its seedy reputation. “ See Naples and die“, the saying goes. Take it from me as one who has been lucky enough to visit. I concur.
September 30, 2020
A very well-done history of Southern Italy focused primarily, but not exclusively, on Naples. It is a mix of political and social history with areas that dive into the arts and literature. For an American reader, it provides a historical basis for Italian-Americans. It also shows the long-standing views, many prejudicial, of the people of Southern Italy held not only by Americans before the great immigration at the end of the 19th century but also by northern Italians and other northern Europeans.
February 4, 2022
3 1/2 stars. There are not very many histories of this area in English, and this one is passable. The author has more than half a dozen centuries of extremely active history to cover in just over three hundred pages of text, and, considering the density of material and the innumerable persons involved, he acquits himself reasonably well. Modern Naples and Sicily get rather short shrift compared to some of the previous epochs, however. There is a fair amount of repetition.
The book is totally inadequate as to maps. There is one very sparsely populated map of what seems to be modern Italy, which is nearly useless. No maps of the various stages of the ancient South, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, etc. A real drawback.
The family trees in the back should have included spouses, as some of them were quite influential themselves or came from influential families, which Astarita alludes to, but doesn't explain.
On the whole, however, this is a readable, brief history of Southern Italy. I sometimes thought the author spent much more time and space on Naples than on Sicily, especially in the middle sections, but until something better comes along, this will do. Just bring your own maps.
The book is totally inadequate as to maps. There is one very sparsely populated map of what seems to be modern Italy, which is nearly useless. No maps of the various stages of the ancient South, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, etc. A real drawback.
The family trees in the back should have included spouses, as some of them were quite influential themselves or came from influential families, which Astarita alludes to, but doesn't explain.
On the whole, however, this is a readable, brief history of Southern Italy. I sometimes thought the author spent much more time and space on Naples than on Sicily, especially in the middle sections, but until something better comes along, this will do. Just bring your own maps.
May 25, 2019
skimmed. enjoyed stories of rebellion and rityal death in medieval napili. but as others have commented, significant focus on napoli rather than all of southern italy. in fact calabria and to a lesser extent sicily (after the end of the kingdom) are rarely discussed. when they are it is to drop in stereotypes by early european travellers without dispelling or explanation. it would be great to hear the why and how of how in 1911 58 % of sicilians, 70% calabrians, and 65% of basilicata were illiterate, as im sure some conclusions can be drawn from the hinted at earlier exploitation and isolation of the lands. impressive tidbit narratives sprinkled throughout but as a whole somehwat disappointing given the broad title.
September 18, 2024
Solid history of Southern Italy. Actually, its a solid history of Naples. Very little was said about Calabria, Basilicata, and Puglia except the usual disasters - earthquakes and Saracen raiders. Given the oppressed peasantry of those parts, maybe this is left to microhistory, which this book is not.
Other than that, the author does a good job of distinguishing the various rulers: Normans, Angevins, Aragon/Spain, Austria, the Bourbons. He is also fair-minded about their pros and cons. There were also some good chapters on the arts and sciences and the enlightenment.
Other than that, the author does a good job of distinguishing the various rulers: Normans, Angevins, Aragon/Spain, Austria, the Bourbons. He is also fair-minded about their pros and cons. There were also some good chapters on the arts and sciences and the enlightenment.
June 29, 2022
Excellent, very readable, history - political, social, cultural - of southern Italy, especially Sicily and Naples. Really good to read if you are going to travel there, but also because the region has contributed so much to American society and culture through the vast numbers of immigrants from that part of Italy.
December 29, 2018
This is a good history of Southern Italy focusing primarily on the city of Naples. Listings of novels and movies from various cultural movements get a bit boring toward the end of the book, hence only 3 stars instead of 4.
August 27, 2019
Fascinating history of Naples telling the detailed tale of this beautiful and neglected city. Charming, challenging and concise, this is an excellent introduction to this great city.
February 14, 2023
History textbook. Good illustration of how geopolitics of other kingdoms drove the political and economic history of the region after the fall of Rome. A little dry.
January 4, 2024
Read the first four chapters, but I was finding that the other two books I just read provided enough information for the periods I was interested in. I was hoping for more about the “holy water”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2024
I had posted this review previously but altered some errors of grammar in March 2024.
This a really disappointing book, aside from being almost exclusively about Naples, it is not, as I had hoped and it seemed to advertise itself, a insightful, personal, possibly idiosyncratic, but ultimately illuminating history of a region, once an independent kingdom, that I, and most of us, know to little about. But what I read was the worst and most banal guide book style history. I really hated this book. Don't read this book. If you want to know about Naples/southern Italy read Peter Robb's 'Midnight in Sicily' and 'A Street Fight in Naples' or a novel like 'The Viceroys' by Frederico de Roberto; or Harold Acton's histories 'The Bourbons of Naples' and 'The Last Bourbons of Naples'; also there is Raleigh Trevelyan's 'Princes Under the Volcano' and last but not least 'The Leopard' and least anyone protest that it is about Sicily remember that Southern Italy was The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
But there are loads more better books to introduce you to the wonders of Southern Italy and to waste your time with this pedestrian volume is a crime and a waste of time.
This a really disappointing book, aside from being almost exclusively about Naples, it is not, as I had hoped and it seemed to advertise itself, a insightful, personal, possibly idiosyncratic, but ultimately illuminating history of a region, once an independent kingdom, that I, and most of us, know to little about. But what I read was the worst and most banal guide book style history. I really hated this book. Don't read this book. If you want to know about Naples/southern Italy read Peter Robb's 'Midnight in Sicily' and 'A Street Fight in Naples' or a novel like 'The Viceroys' by Frederico de Roberto; or Harold Acton's histories 'The Bourbons of Naples' and 'The Last Bourbons of Naples'; also there is Raleigh Trevelyan's 'Princes Under the Volcano' and last but not least 'The Leopard' and least anyone protest that it is about Sicily remember that Southern Italy was The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
But there are loads more better books to introduce you to the wonders of Southern Italy and to waste your time with this pedestrian volume is a crime and a waste of time.
November 5, 2008
Not the easiest read but the only English treatment of southern Italian history I found before taking my vacation there this year. Loved mention of the opera with the mute heroine who danced her part. The book assumes a moderate level of historic knowledge of its reader - for example, much mention is made of the feudalistic system continuing in southern Italy to the disadvantage of the lower classes. This is well documented in any books about medieval life, but not necessarily obvious to the casual reader.
Another problem in trying to treat the history of all southern Itlay as a whole is that bits keep separating, causing breaks in the narrative flow of the book.
Another problem in trying to treat the history of all southern Itlay as a whole is that bits keep separating, causing breaks in the narrative flow of the book.
June 8, 2013
I'm confused as to who the intended audience for this is. It's in the style of a textbook or a serious scholarly history, and written by an academic. But it doesn't have the citation density that I would expect. There are many assertions that are not sourced at all. To me this makes it of limited use for scholarly purposes, which is unfortunate.
Want to read
February 22, 2010History of S. Italy
June 17, 2011
great book to read before, during and after a visit to Southern Italy.
September 17, 2007
Great overview of the history of southern Italy. Fascinating
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December 29, 2018I enjoyed this history of Naples and Sicily particularly the discussion of guilds and the succession of monarchs and the countries from which those monarchs reigned.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews