Books, the return of Benedetto Croce with the Neapolitan legends

Benedetto Croce's classic, essential pages on Neapolitan legends return to bookstores and enrich the 'Parthenope' series with which Colonnese Editore is revisiting, and bringing back to light, precious gems.

From the “Neapolitan Legends” by Matilde Serao to “Spiritism in Naples” by Roberto Bracco to “The City of Sorrows” by Axel Munthe. In “Legends of Naples”, spiced up by a second part on “Bourbon Naples” (128 pages, 10 euros), we find Don Benedetto’s profitable enjoyment for the mysterious and dark and yet investigable facts of local history. If rummaging through a thousand minutiae was his intent, everything then poured out for the benefit of the readers.

From the Arch of Sant'Eligio to the well of Santa Sofia, from the crocodile of Castelnuovo to the "palaces of the spirits" among which, of course, stands out the home of Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero. There is much material, and pretext, for new and old tours through the meanders of the former capital saturated with a legend that remains contiguous beyond time. Croce's very pleasant prose, between meticulousness and underlying humor, did not disappoint the reader of the time nor will it disappoint him today, a century and some later, even if it only has touristic pretensions.

This latest Crocean repechage should be addressed to Giuseppe Pesce, a tireless historian, a journalist accustomed to every literary "excavation" of Naples and its surroundings, who also signed the introduction to the volume.