In the bookstore “Neapolitan Studies – Memoirs of a Protestant Observer in Naples in 1880” a forgotten testimony by John Peter. In the bookstore for Stamperia del Valentino
For the I Cinquecento series by Stamperia del Valentino, John Peter returns to the bookstore with Studi napoletani – Memorie di un osservatore Protestante nella Napoli del 1880 (242 pages, €23), written in Naples in French and never translated until now. A completely forgotten text, it is now being brought to light as a historical testimony rich in information on the Neapolitan society and territory of the late nineteenth century.
The volume, in fact, includes a collection of twelve short essays on the local color of that post-unitary Naples, former capital, in which - still uncertain about the actual goodness of the then recent events - the minds of the new subjects of the new Savoy kingdom were stirring. A period of transition in which the city suffered from the imbalance between a Bourbon permanence, in customs and consciences, and the beginning of disillusionment, even in those who had hoped for the transition to the new regime and to a One-Italy.
John Peter (Jean-Charles) was a cultured and curious man, he collected his main writings in two volumes: Études napolitaines (1882) published in Naples and Lausanne, and Nouvelles ètudes napolitanes (1887), soon to be published, again by Stamperia del Valentino.
Coming from a family from Geneva, where he was born in 1833, in 1860 Peter was in Burgundy (Chalon-sur-Saone), then in Saint-Denis, in the heart of Paris, and in 1866 he arrived in Naples, where he was pastor of the French church until '86. In 1878 he published the pamphlet on the Dominican Father Rocco (1700-1782), who Dumas defined as "more powerful in Naples than the Mayor, the Archbishop, and even the King". In 1884 Peter devoted himself to writing the text on the legend of San Gennaro, another forgotten book, but recently translated and published by Stamperia del Valentino.
The two volumes by John Peter can be purchased on all industry platforms and on the publisher's website: www.stamperiadelvalentino.it
The publishing house
Publisher since 2002, Paolo Izzo, alter-ego of Stamperia del Valentino, manages the editorial choices of his “creature” with extreme rigor. The result is a high-profile catalogue both in the field of Neapolitan culture and in that of humanistic, esoteric and historical production. Stamperia del Valentino wants to bring cultured, folkloristic and literary Naples back to the public’s attention. For this purpose, it selects works aimed at the curious cultured as well as the scholar, with an eye to the originality and completeness of the proposed themes.
Article published on 20 October 2022 - 19:00
