COLLETTA, PIETRO. - Historian, born in Napoli on 23 Jan. 1775, died at Verramista, in the Capponi villa, on 11 Nov. 1831. He took part as a military man in political life, first in the Bourbon army, then in defence of the Parthenopean Republic; both Gioacchino Murat and King Ferdinando made use of his services. With the return of the Austrians to Napoli, he was confined for two years at Brünn in Moravia. In 1823 he moved to Firenze, where he composed the Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 sino al 1835, published posthumously by Capponi.
In the 10 books of the Storia (it was placed on the Index by decree of 7 July 1835), C., a vivid writer in the pages in which he himself is an actor and bears witness to the events narrated, nevertheless lacks a profound vision and a sound criterion of historical investigation, being bound to a certain taste for chronicle. In his overall view he remains attached to the eighteenth-century myth of progress and to hatred of the papacy; politically, he favours a middle way opposed both to revolution and reaction.