Benedetto Croce tells the story of his home in the heart of the old town in “A corner of Naples”. Available in bookstores from April 2023 for Stamperia del Valentino
A corner of Naples, a precious 130-page booklet (16 euros) published by Stamperia del Valentino with a preface by Mario Prisco, is for the reader an incursion into the history of the city and into the world of one of the greatest European intellectuals of the twentieth century, Benedetto Croce, who rarely, as he did in this booklet, spoke about himself. And it is above all a way to understand the importance that the house has for an intellectual, where it becomes a place of work, of sociality and of custody of knowledge.
Deciding to live in the heart of the old town, in Palazzo Filomarino located in Via Trinità Maggiore, was for Croce an act of love for Naples. The deep enthusiasm for this choice led him to tell the story of the centuries-old history of the house in which he lived for half a century, choosing it as the headquarters of the magazine “La critica”, a meeting place for intellectuals from all over and the permanent residence of his immense library.
The desire to convey the happy feeling experienced in the first months spent in the new home is evident from the first pages. The use of the first person, typical of autobiographical narrative, gives Croce a less academic and more inclined to talk about himself and the emotion of living between walls crossed by History.
"Having decided to leave his old home on Largo Arianello, which had become too small to accommodate his already extensive library ," Prisco explains in the introduction, "Benedetto Croce began looking for a house in January 1910. Initially, his choice seemed to be directed at purchasing an apartment on Largo Ferrandina in the Chiaia district, where a segment of the Neapolitan aristocracy and upper middle class had begun to move between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But the deal fell through, and the search continued. Only on July 9 of the same year did the philosopher write in his Working Notebook: 'I went to visit a house that suits me, at Via Trinità Maggiore 12, and I began negotiations for the purchase.'"
The agreement was reached on November 30 and three days later Croce noted in his diary that he “went to the notary to sign the purchase contract”.
At that time the street was already named after the Neapolitan clinician Mariano Semmola who had lived in the very apartment chosen by the philosopher, who never wanted to accept that name as valid, always taking into consideration the old name instead: via Trinità Maggiore 12.
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.
