Amalfi - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 589

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

AMALFI – West side of the Cloister of Paradise; fragments of Cosmatesque ambons and pagan sarcophagi. Arab-Sicilian architecture (13th century).

Developed during the subsequent Swabian period, it gives A. a distinctive character through the bold use of interlaced arches—a style whose masterpieces are found in two 13th-century monuments: the Cappuccini Cloister and the Cloister of Paradise. The Cathedral, whose original structure underwent renovations, enlargements, and alterations in the Middle Ages and also in recent times, still retains its beauty, together with its superb staircase and bell tower, erected between 1180 and 1276. Of the republic’s glorious age, there remain only part of the shipyard and the celebrated bronze doors (and contemporary jambs) of the ancient cathedral, which a merchant, Pantaleone di Mauro, sent as a gift to his homeland from Constantinople. Rich in historical and artistic monuments, but above all in those extraordinary natural beauties that have made the Amalfi coast famous throughout the world, are the other places of the diocese: Capri, Ravello, Atrani, Positano, Pegerola, Maiori, Minori, Scala. - Vedi TAVV. LXXV-LXXVI.

BIBL.: The oldest source for the history of the city and duchy is the Chronicon Amalphitanum (530–1082), based on an earlier Catagogus Amalphitanus (edited only in part by A. A. Pelliccia, in Raccolto di Croniche e diari del regno di Napoli, V, Napoli 1782, pp. 140–61, and in other collections); for religious history, the Chronicon archiepiscoporum (like the other work, edited only in part in Pelliccia, op. cit., pp. 163–81). Fundamental texts for the emergence of commercial and maritime law, the Tabula and the Consuetudini d'Amalfi were published several times after the edition prepared by L. Volpicella, Napoli 1844, and simultaneously by T. Gar, in Arch. Stor. ital., Appendice I, Firenze 1843–44, n. 8, pp. 253–89.

For the history of the duchy: F. G. Pansa, Istoria dell'antica Repubblica d'A., 2 vols., Napoli 1724; M. Camera, Istoria della città e costiera d'A., Napoli 1836; id., Memorie storico-diplomatiche dell'antica città e ducato d'A., 2 vols., Salerno 1876–81; F. Schupfer, Trani ed A., in Riv. Ital. Sc. Giur., 17 (1893); A. Hofmeister, Zur Gesch. Amalfis in d. byzantin. Zeit, in Byzantin.-neugriech. Jahrbuch, 1 (1920); M. Berza, A. preducale, in Riv. Dacromana, 1 (1938).

For ecclesiastical history: Ughelli, VII, pp. 183–256; Capelletti, XX, pp. 601–12; A. Gröner, Die Diözesen Italiens, Friburgo in Br. 1904, Italian translation, Melfi 1908, pp. 47–48 and passim; Lanzoni, pp. 248–50.

For the history of art: K. Schulz, Denkmäler d. Kunst d. Mittelalters in Unteritalien, II, Dresda 1860; D. Salazaro, Studi sui monumenti dell'Italia meridionale dal sec. IV al XIII, Napoli 1870; S. Volpicella, Delle antichità d'A. e dintorni, in Studi di lett. st. ed arte, Napoli 1876; L. M. Mansi, Illustrazione dei principali monumenti d'arte e storia del versante amalfitano, Roma 1898; E. Bertaux, L'art dans l'Italie méridionale, Parigi 1903; P. Pirri, Il duomo di A. e il chiostro del Paradiso, Roma 1941. Pier Fausto Palumbo