CAMPANIA

CAMPANIA. —

I. Geography

A historic region of southern Italy, comprising the Tyrrhenian versant of the Apennines from the Gulf of Gaeta (lower Garigliano) to that of Policastro (Sapri). To the proper Apennine zone (from the Matese massif, which rises to 2050 m., to the Cilento, where Mount Cervati reaches 1899 m.), of essentially calcareous formation, and to the anti-Apennine zone, which includes, together with the Neapolitan volcanic district (formed by active apparatuses such as Vesuvius, 1186 m., and dormant ones such as the Phlegraean Fields and Mount Epomeo on the island of Ischia), the mighty calcareous mass of the Lattari Mountains (1443 m.), which forms the backbone of the Sorrentine Peninsula, is opposed the flat section to which the name Campania originally belonged (i.e., the Capuan countryside on the lower Volturno), which, with the smaller alluvial (lower Garigliano, plain of Paestum) or volcanic plains (between Naples and the Sorrentine Peninsula), represents in total one-fifth of the region’s area, as well as the insular groups of the Pontine and Parthenopean Islands (Ischia, Procida, and Capri).

The climate of Campania, warm-temperate along the coasts, becomes less mild inland and quite harsh in the mountainous areas. Characteristic, especially in comparison with the nearby arid Apulia, is the relative abundance of precipitation.

The great diversity of the landscape corresponds to notable contrasts in economic activities and settlement patterns. Agriculture (48% of the active population) benefits in the plains from the notable fertility of the soil, the abundance of water, and the favorable climate; here, in addition to cereals, hemp and vegetables are cultivated, while on the slopes of the hills, olives, vines, and citrus fruits thrive (rivieras of Salerno and Amalfi). Campania is, among the regions of southern Italy, the one with the greatest industrial development, ranging from ancient and traditional industries (food pastes, tomato and fruit preserves, coral processing) to newer ones (footwear, glove-making) and the very newest (mechanical, shipbuilding, textile), which are now flourishing there; it is also, within southern Italy, the region with the densest and most accessible communication routes (especially railways). Maritime activity constitutes another significant resource (the fishermen of the Gulf of Naples venture as far as the Greek islands and the coasts of Algeria).

With 4.2 million inhabitants (as of January 1, 1948) over 13,595 km², Campania now records the highest absolute population density in Italy, both regionally (273 inhabitants per km²) and provincially (Naples: 1,505 inhabitants per km²). The coast of the Gulf of Naples, from Pozzuoli to Sorrento, exceeds 1,000 inhabitants per km².

Almost half of the Campanian municipalities have a population density exceeding 200 inhabitants per square kilometer. It is characteristic, however, that only one urban center surpasses 100,000 inhabitants, indeed now approaching one million; this alone suffices to clarify Naples’ special position within the region.

| Province (and population of the provincial capital) | Area in sq. km. | Census population 1936 | Density per sq. km. | Population 1-1-48 (in thousands) |
|-----------------------------------------------------|-----------------|------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------------|
| Avellino | 28,020 | 446,412 | 159 | 494 |
| Benevento | 36,398 | 303,235 | 148 | 333 |
| Caserta | 46,921 | 506,860 | 192 | 573 |
| Napoli | 11,710 | 1,734,848 | 150 | 2,028 |
| Salerno | 998,299 | 705,277 | 143 | 812 |
| Benevento | 89,979 | 3,696,632 | 273 | 424 |

II. HISTORY

The Campania region took its name from the original nucleus of Capua and the *ager Campanus*, the flat territory that almost like a broad plain surrounds it; this name later came to designate even circumscribed localities, as a result of historical events or, more often, administrative needs. At the time of Augustus, Campania, which formed part of *Regio I* together with Latium, already had a greater extent than the primitive territory; subsequently it came to include also the land of the Hirpini and much of Samnium.

In 1927, with the suppression of the province of Terra di Lavoro (with its capital at Caserta), some communes of that province were incorporated into the Lazio region, within the new provinces of Frosinone and Latina, and Campania was thus constituted as a political unit without true homogeneity of traditions or even of geographical configuration. On 11 June 1945 the province was reconstituted, so that the ecclesiastical region once again coincides with the civil one. Historical reasons and traditional needs have contributed to its formation, giving it, in comparison with the civil region, a smaller extent but greater homogeneity, although even here some zones are perfect. It is now composed of three metropolitan sees: Capua, with its suffragans Cajazzo, Calvi, and Teano; Caserta, with Isernia and Venafro, Sessa Aurunca; Naples, with its suffragans Acerra, Ischia, Nola, Pozzuoli; Sorrento, with its suffragan Castellammare di Stabia. Moreover, within the territory of the Campania region but immediately subject to the Holy See are the archbishop of Gaeta, the bishopric of Aversa, the *nullius* abbey of Montecassino with its annexed provostship of Atina; recently the prelature of Pompeii has been added.

In Campania Christianity was introduced at a very early date. It suffices to recall that at Pozzuoli, the ordinary landing-place of Orientals on their way to Rome, the Apostle St Paul found “brethren” already there when he disembarked. That St Peter also landed there is, however, a very uncertain tradition, handed down in the apocryphal *Actus Petri cum Sicyone*. Hermas (*Pastor, Visio IIa*, chs. 1-4) mentions Cumae but without reference to its Church. Yet it is natural to think that the seats of those numerous bishoprics which we know to have existed in Italy by the mid-third century must be sought, besides in Latium, in Campania; Capua, Naples, and Cumae present themselves as the most probable, and perhaps the first of these might be traced back even to the end of the first century. In any case it will not be too venturesome to conclude that already by the end of the second century there were Christian communities in several places in Campania, organized with their own hierarchy. In the fourth century, while Capua and Naples were among the few Italian cities to have a basilica erected by Constantine, the region counted many dioceses that must have dated from the time of the persecutions. Correspondingly rich is the flowering of martyrs and saints. Rufus with the group of Capuan martyrs, Januarius with that of the Neapolitans, Erasmus of Formiae are among the best known. At Nola, which became, especially through the merits of its bishop Paulinus, a little holy city of the West, St Felix attracted numerous pilgrims. At the Council of Nicaea (325) we see Pope Sylvester represented by Vincent of Capua. In that same century Capua was further distinguished by the teaching of Victor.

The bishops of Campania are recalled as a numerous group by St Athanasius, by the Council of Sardica in 343, by Pope Liberius, by St Hilary of Poitiers, by Pope Innocent I during the fourth century and then by St Leo in two letters from the mid-fifth century (Lanzoni, p. 175).

Despite the splendid vitality which Christianity displayed throughout the region, pagan worship persisted here and there, preferably in the mountains near ancient sanctuaries. St Benedict found ample evangelical work to do in the district of Cassino even in the sixth century, while on the mountain summit, in place of the ancient temples, he was establishing his monastery which in the formation of Christian Europe was to exercise a beneficial and decisive influence. The Gothic wars in the sixth century, as elsewhere in Italy, piled ruin upon Campania, and St Gregory the Great bears witness to this; but these were certainly surpassed, a few decades later, by the Lombard invasion, through which Campania too was all divided and fragmented and civil and religious life thrown into confusion or annihilated. Roman authority, now represented by Byzantium, was confined to the coastal strip, where the duchies of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi acquired an ever more autonomous character and life. The central part grouped itself into the Lombard duchy of Benevento, from which later Capua and Salerno detached themselves. Among the lesser lordships, characteristic is the almost independent one of Montecassino, at the gates of the region on the road leading to Rome. Ecclesiastical life felt the effects of these vicissitudes. And with religious life the cultural and artistic manifestations revived, nourished by the various centres and especially by the Benedictine ones of Montecassino and S. Vincenzo al Volturno.

The Saracen invasion at the end of the ninth century repeated, though on a smaller scale, the damage of the Lombard conquest. The Campanian forces intervened victoriously at Ostia (816); and in Campania, with the battle of the Garigliano, the Saracen power in southern Italy was finally broken (915).

In the eleventh century a new vitality animated these regions, which, despite their fragmentation, had regained prosperity and wealth. And while Benevento, at the end of the century, passed to the Church, in the region, as in all southern Italy, the Norman monarchy was taking root; in 1059 it received its first investiture from Nicholas II, which was then constantly renewed in the following ages, when, the kingdom of Naples having been constituted, it was held by the Norman, Angevin, and other dynasties as a fief of the Apostolic See, albeit through struggles and conflicts. Every Greek element was eliminated from the region, while Naples acquired an ever more predominant position until it became the capital of the kingdom. The structure of the region may now be regarded as finally settled within the framework of the kingdom which, while acknowledging itself subject to Rome, would engage, especially in the eighteenth century, in struggles to free itself and become altogether independent.

Despite these conflicts, at times very acute, the population of Campania has always preserved a deep and great religiousness. This is attested by the numerous

Charitable institutions, confraternities, religious bodies, and churches—of which, for example, Naples had until not many years ago more than Rome—shrines, from those of Pompei, the Madonna dell’Arco, St. Alfonso in Pagani, St. Januarius in Naples and Pozzuoli, to the many others, especially Marian, that adorn even the most remote and humble villages; the frequent, exuberant religious festivals and celebrations, in which the full exuberance of the southern temperament is displayed, an exuberance that helps to explain, if not entirely to justify, those excesses and mixtures of the sacred and the profane that not infrequently appear in these festivals, which, moreover, were, and in many places still are, the sole diversion for a people of limited means. Among the most characteristic festivals are the Festa dei Gigli in Nola in honor of St. Paolino, and the Festa dei Quattro Altari in Torre del Greco.

III. Art

The surviving evidence of pre-Romanesque art outside Naples (v.) is very scarce. At Cimitile near Nola, St. Paolino at the beginning of the 5th century wished to build a new basilica beside the one containing the tomb of St. Felice; at Nocera Superiore, almost in the same period, the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore was built. The phases of development in sacred architecture from the 6th to the 10th century remain unclear due to the destruction and alterations of the few remains. Of the work of Lombard architects and stonecutters active in Capua, Salerno, Benevento, and of the Byzantine buildings erected during the rule of the Eastern Empire, only scant traces remain. In the 7th century two churches of Byzantine type were built: the now-destroyed church of S. Maria delle Cinque Torri at Cassino and that of S. Sofia at Benevento, where, however, an original interpretation of Eastern models is evident. Byzantine elements are visible in the churches of S. Giovanni a Mare at Gaeta, of S. Costanzo at Capri, and in a few other sacred buildings in the region.

More than in architecture, the influence of Byzantine and, in general, Eastern art manifested itself in decorative sculpture, mural paintings, and illuminated manuscripts. With the rise of Amalfi’s maritime power, and then with the advent of the Normans and later the Swabians, the arts flourished and entered their golden age. Already under Desiderius, abbot of Montecassino (1058–87), construction activity had greatly increased in Campania; indeed, Desiderius brought architects and masters of mosaic and inlay from the East, and Montecassino became an artistic center of great importance, from which architectural and decorative styles spread throughout the region. Ecclesiastical architecture, however, remained faithful to the basilican type with a Latin cross plan in structure, while its decoration was enriched with motifs inspired by Siculo-Muslim models but with a decidedly local character, especially at Salerno and Amalfi.

Doors decorated with sculptures of Lombard character, with fragments of Roman-era marbles or of Byzantine type; bronze doors imported from Byzantium (as in the cathedrals of Salerno and Amalfi) or clearly derived from Byzantine models (

Ambones, episcopal cathedras, paschal candlesticks, and chancel screens enhanced the splendor of famous temples in Campania. At that time, the use of geometric mosaic decoration by Campanian masters—who derived their taste from Siculo-Muslim art—was also common.

In the field of painting, Byzantine culture dominated. At San Vincenzo al Volturno, a school of painting flourished in the 9th century, of which important remains survive (the oratory of Abbot Epiphanius). However, the fundamental document of medieval Campanian painting is the cycle of frescoes that Abbot Desiderius had painted on the walls of the basilica of Sant’Angelo in Formis. Their influence is reflected in the frescoes of other medieval Campanian basilicas (Santa Maria a Foro Claudio in Ventaroli, Santa Maria del Piano in Ausonia).

When the Franciscans and Dominicans, favored by the Angevins, succeeded the Benedictines in spiritual influence, artistic activity in Campania developed further. Once the Angevins had consolidated their rule, they brought French architects to Naples, who worked alongside local builders, spreading the principles of the new Gothic architecture from the capital throughout Campania. After the Angevins came the Aragonese, and Spanish Gothic flourished until the Renaissance, which in Campania did not produce vital artistic seeds. In the 15th–16th centuries, architects, painters, and sculptors reworked artistic forms inspired primarily by Tuscan and Roman models. Artists flocked from northern and central Italy, Sicily, and Spain in search of work and fortune—from Luciano and Francesco Laurana to Guglielmo Sagrera and Domenico Gagini.

During Spanish rule, the viceroys—and especially the Jesuits, Theatines, and Oratorians—revived the founding of churches and convents, giving a vigorous impetus to building activity that culminated in the 17th century under the direct influence of architects such as Cosimo Fanzago, Giovanni Antonio Dosio, Gian Battista Cavagna, Domenico and Giulio Fontana, and Francesco Picchiatti, and of sculptors who immigrated from northern Italy, such as Giuliano Finelli, Andrea Bolgi, and others. In 17th-century painting, however, Naples and Campania asserted themselves with eminent figures: Gian Battista Caracciolo, Massimo Stanzione, Bernardo Cavallino, Salvator Rosa, Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, and Francesco Solimena created a local school of painting that steered Campanian art toward new goals, leading it to merge, as the centuries turned, into 19th-century painting.

In the second half of the 18th century, while architects such as Domenico Antonio Vaccaro and Ferdinando Sanfelice built sumptuous churches and palaces adorned with rich stucco decoration—final flickers of declining Chiaramontesque Baroque—L. Vanvitelli at Resina (Villa Campolieto), San Giorgio a Cremano (Villa Vargas), and above all at Caserta (the royal palace and park) developed architectural forms destined to prepare the gradual advent of 19th-century Neoclassicism. Peculiar manifestations of the spirit and artistic taste of the 18th century in Campania were the maiolicas, used especially to cover the extradosses of church domes and other minor arts: furniture, porcelain, tapestries, marbles, Nativity sculptures, and silks, including the famous ones from San Leucio. Between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, French dominance imposed Neoclassical fashion, and art languished within academic formulas and canons. After a period of stagnation, it resumed its course through the work of G. Gigante, D. Morelli, F. Palizzi, G. Toma, M. Cammarano, and V. Gemito.

IV. FOLKLORE

The folk traditions of Campania are distinguished by several principal centers or zones: the city of Naples, the coastal region, Irpinia (Avellino), and the Sannio of Benevento. In the picturesque variety of its customs and traditions, Naples has always been one of its chief attractions. A broad view of Neapolitan popular life from the 16th century onward can be gained through the works of its dialect writers: Velardinello, the “Gran Cortese,” Giambattista Basile, and others. From the 18th century, art—especially through engravings and lithographs depicting folkloric scenes—also provided precise and engaging documentation. It is above all the artisans and street vendors, with their cries and stalls, who create the “local color”: the marinariello (sailor-seller), the ovaio (egg-seller), the verdummaro (greengrocer), the maruzzaro (shellfish-seller), the castagnaro (chestnut-seller), the mellonaro (melon-seller), the frantellicaro (seller of solid honey sweets and candies), and likewise the zoccolaro (clog-maker), the arrotino (knife-grinder), and the concitagami (rag-and-bone man). Another characteristic figure was Rinaldo, the popular storyteller. Given the temperament of the inhabitants and the sunlit beauty of the places, all festivals take on an exceptionally noisy and joyful character. Suffice it to recall Piedigrotta, “the most Neapolitan festival there is,” held on September 8 with pilgrimages to the shrine of the Virgin of Pozzuoli, and which for over a century has also been the festival of song. Equally crowded and full of movement and color is the pilgrimage to the distant shrine of the Madonna of Montevergine in Irpinia. Characteristic forms of popular worship and decoration are also found in the pilgrimages to the Madonna of Pompei, the Madonna dell’Arco, and others.

In the coastal zone, especially around Amalfi and Capri, the rustic architecture—with its small domes, terraces, arches, and passageways and its luminously white walls—strongly recalls that of the opposite Mediterranean shore. Among the fantastic beings in which the common people of Campania believe, we may mention “o munaciello,” a familiar but sometimes mischievous spirit who appears in ecclesiastical dress with a skullcap; fortunate is he who manages to remove it from the spirit’s head. Famous is the walnut tree of Benevento, already known since

The Middle Ages regarded the walnut tree as the "noce delle janare" ["witches' walnut tree"], because it was considered a meeting place for witches. This belief fostered, until quite recently, a tradition of magicians, charlatans and women who practiced witchcraft and folk medicine. Among the most beautiful women's costumes is the festive dress of the brides of Sessa Aurunca. The traditional costume is still worn in various towns of the Irpinia (from *hirpus* = wolf), such as Montesalvo, Calitri and Bisaccia.

Well known is the *majo* of Baiano, a large tree around which, on 26 December, an immense bonfire is lit, while the faithful shout: "O glorious one! Long live our St Stephen!" Still very much alive are the sacred representations for Holy Week, both in the form of semi-dramatic sermons and in that of "mysteries"—large wooden statues forming groups depicting scenes from the Passion, placed along the streets at the resting places of the procession: important ones are those of Mirabella Eclano, Montoro and Lapio. Also frequent is the representation of the struggle between St Michael the Archangel and the devil.

Widespread are the Marian legends, almost all linked to places of veneration of the Madonna, especially on the Sorrentine Peninsula.

V. Regione conciliare campana

It is one of the regions into which Italy was divided by provisions of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 15 Feb., 22 March 1919 and 29 Sept. 1933 (*AAS*, 11 [1919], pp. 72-74, 176; 25 [1933], p. 466), for the purpose of holding regional councils in place of provincial councils.

It comprises the territories of the ecclesiastical provinces of Capua, Naples and Sorrento, as well as the archdiocese of Gaeta, the diocese of Aversa, the *abbazia nullius* of Montecassino with the annexed prepositura of Atina, and the *prelatura nullius* of the B.V.M. of the Most Holy Rosary (Pompeii).

In the regional capital (Naples) is seated the regional tribunal for marriage nullity cases; it also functions as an appellate tribunal for cases judged in first instance by the tribunals of the Beneventan (Benevento), Lucano-Salernitan (Salerno) or Calabrian (Reggio Calabria) regions. Appeals against the sentences of the Campanian regional tribunal are to be lodged with the tribunal of the Lazio region (Vicariate of Rome) or with the Sacred Roman Rota (cf. Pius XI, *motu proprio* *Qua cura*, 8 Dec. 1938, in *AAS*, 30 [1938], pp. 410-13). — See Pl. XXXIII.