A Criminal Hero

Justice, Politics and Media Culture in Eighteenth-Century Naples
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-72227-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 158 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Microhistories

In the spring of 1757, the Augustinian friar Leopoldo di San Pasquale was tried in Naples by the hierarchies of his own religious order on charges of financial fraud, heresy, and sexual immorality. He responded by accusing the heads of the convent of subjecting him to a series of inhuman cruelties, claiming to have been "buried alive". While waiting for a final judgment (it was pronounced seven years later, in 1764), the trial of Leopoldo di San Pasquale became a cultural phenomenon unlike any witnessed before in Naples. Cumulatively, reactions to the trial, both during and after it, broke the boundaries separating chronicle and literary fiction, engaged people’s faculties of reason and emotion, and ultimately transformed Leopoldo into a public spectacle—or what we might call today a “celebrity.”

Focusing on the scandalous affair of the "buried alive", this book shows how the governing authorities in Naples managed the development of news and stories around current events through their systems of courts and bureaucracies. It also aims to demonstrate how, just as importantly, consumers played an increasing in the spread of information, as means to political empowerment. The sources analyzed call for a microhistorical analysis, as well as for an interdisciplinary discussion with media studies at its conceptual core.

A Criminal Hero will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in microhistory, cultural history, media history, history of literature, social and political history, with a focus on the eighteenth century.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Palmieri, Pasquale

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1: “Buried Alive:” Leopoldo and the Style of the Holy Office (1757–1767)

Chapter 2: Justice, Literature, and Public Space

Chapter 3: A Participatory Tale: Verbal, Visual, and Written Forms of Communication

Chapter 4: Literary Communication and the Building of a Political Culture

Conclusion: A Hidden Identity in the Theater of the World

Über Autor(innen)

Pasquale Palmieri is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Naples “Federico II.” He is Ph.D. in History of European Society (University of Naples Federico II, 2008) and Italian Studies (University of Texas at Austin, 2021). His research interests include early modern media and literary culture, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between politics and religion. His recent publications include Le cento vite di Cagliostro (2023) and The Land of Devotion. Saints, Politics and Media Culture in 18th-Century Italy (2023).