Residential strategies, construction of urban space and social distinction in Naples between the 14th and 16th centuries

Based mostly on unpublished documents, the essay illustrates how urban space was occupied by some noble families ascribed to the Neapolitan Seggio of Nido between the 14th and 16th centuries. Residential strategies in their relational density, residential blocks, common courtyards, gardens, porticoes, towers, churches and chapels define different forms of rootedness and control of the urban space. These are competing processes of construction and reproduction of spatial prominence, through which the position of families and clans in the relational structure of the Seggio of Nido was translated into stone. They reflect the specific meaning attributed to vetustas, i.e. rootedness and unflinching control of the urban space. This must be understood as a strong criterion of social distinction and as a symbolic notion of the imagery of nobility, codified by the ancient aristocracy of the Seggio in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Automated summary

This essay, based on unpublished documents, illustrates how noble families associated with the Neapolitan Seggio of Nido occupied urban space between the 14th and 16th centuries. The strategies employed in constructing and reproducing spatial prominence reflected the social distinction and symbolic notions of nobility attributed to the ancient aristocracy of the Seggio during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.