| Title | Chapter Four: 1707-1722 |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Naples |
| Contributor | Thérèse Ridley (translator) |
| Thérèse Ridley (contributions by) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0483.04 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0483/chapters/10.11647/obp.0483.04 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Thérèse Ridley |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2026-04-09 |
| Long abstract | Chapter Four (1707-1722). Naples passed from Spanish to Austrian control (1707). Argento was promoted to the Council of S. Chiara, which G.’s legal practice, but a number of very complicated and high-level cases brought him fame. The first Austrian viceroy, Martinic, appointed new magistrates, but they were later dismissed, so that enormous problems of precedence were created. G. brilliantly defended the precedence of Argento and the older incumbents. Then the Emperor asserted state control over benefices, and Rome reacted sharply, but ineffectually. Argento defended the secular power, and the disputes were endless. G. was Argento’s ‘research assistant’, which greatly expanded his reading for the Civil History. Another celebrated case of G. was against the bishop of Lecce who claimed the whole olive-crop of San Pietro in Lama; G. relied on his skills in the history of ecclesiastical and baronial law, and even the longevity of olive trees! He also won a celebrated boundary dispute, and a notorious inheritance case, which allowed him to purchase the estate of Due Porte as a summer retreat. In the midst of all this legal activity, G. devoted every available holiday to work on the Civil History. He also suffered a serious stomach complaint, which he ameliorated by henceforth abstaining from wine. In 1720 G. met Elizabetta Castelli, who became his mistress and bore him a son and a daughter. The next year he began printing the Civil History, without ecclesiastical permission, but with that of the viceroy and Collateral Council. Capasso acted as proof-reader, as did Francesco Mela. |
| Print length | 34 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Therese Ridley completed her Honours degree at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Melbourne). She studied History (with the doyen of the Melbourne School), German, Chinese and Japanese, having studied French at high school. She acquired Italian by spending many years in Italy, accompanying her husband (a specialist in Roman History and the History of Rome) on his study leave every fourth year, and for the past twenty years spending every November in Rome, an annual research trip. She spends all her time in the Vatican Library. She is also the translator from German of Friedrich Münzer, Rӧmische Adelsparteien Adelsfamilien, a classic study, originally 1920, listed in every bibliography on Roman politics, but never subsequently referred to. This was instantly published by the oldest American University Press, Johns Hopkins, in 1999. Reviews stated that “Therese Ridley’s remarkable translation of the book and her re-editing of Münzer’s bibliography at last give the English-speaking world access to Münzer’s intellectual legacy” : Ronald Weber, History, reviews of new books 28 (2000). This translation has, in fact, now superseded the original German in references. For the past twenty years Therese Ridley has devoted herself to the life and works of Pietro Giannone, reading and translating his enormous bibliography. She has traced him the length and breadth of Italy. She is well known, of course, to the doyen of Giannone studies, Professor Giuseppe Ricuperati of Torino.
Therese Ridley completed her Honours degree at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Melbourne). She studied History (with the doyen of the Melbourne School), German, Chinese and Japanese, having studied French at high school. She acquired Italian by spending many years in Italy, accompanying her husband (a specialist in Roman History and the History of Rome) on his study leave every fourth year, and for the past twenty years spending every November in Rome, an annual research trip. She spends all her time in the Vatican Library. She is also the translator from German of Friedrich Münzer, Rӧmische Adelsparteien Adelsfamilien, a classic study, originally 1920, listed in every bibliography on Roman politics, but never subsequently referred to. This was instantly published by the oldest American University Press, Johns Hopkins, in 1999. Reviews stated that “Therese Ridley’s remarkable translation of the book and her re-editing of Münzer’s bibliography at last give the English-speaking world access to Münzer’s intellectual legacy” : Ronald Weber, History, reviews of new books 28 (2000). This translation has, in fact, now superseded the original German in references. For the past twenty years Therese Ridley has devoted herself to the life and works of Pietro Giannone, reading and translating his enormous bibliography. She has traced him the length and breadth of Italy. She is well known, of course, to the doyen of Giannone studies, Professor Giuseppe Ricuperati of Torino.