A ‘tabula’ on which the Neapolitans have ‘written and rewritten’ for centuries over the course of almost three millennia. A city full of signs and memories, which every day is still before our eyes and our feet, to be interpreted in its complexity, almost like a sheet of paper by Leonardo. This is the Naples that the book “Forma Urbis Neapolis. Genesis and permanence of the design of the Greek city” Of Alfredo Buccaro, Alfonso Mele And Teresa Tauro (ed. arte’m, 2023) brings to light.
A volume dedicated to the origins of Naples – an intriguing ‘stone document’ – on which today the June 3, 2024at 3.30 pm in Naples – Castel Nuovo at the Neapolitan Society of Homeland History – Sala Galasso In presence of Renata De Lorenzo President of the Italian Society of Homeland History they will compare, discussing it with the authors: Stefano De Caroformer Director General of the International Center for Studies for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage; Giorgio Rocco, Professor of History of Architecture Polytechnic of Bari President of CSSAR – Rome; Carlo Vecce, Professor of Italian Literature at L’Orientale University of Naples Accademico dei Lincei. The journalist coordinated the debate Vittorio Del Tufo Central editor-in-chief of the newspaper Il Mattino.
The volume (published with the contribution of the Campania Region for the promotion of the quality of architecture) is the result of intense research proposed by Teresa Tauro in relation to her innovative studies on the origins of the urban planning of Naples begun with the University of Salerno and further developed also by Alfonso Mele and Alfredo Buccaro within the Interdepartmental Center on the Iconography of the European City (CIRICE), of Federico II directed by Buccaro himself. Furthermore, in this topic of great interest which never ceases to amaze, in addition to the authors, it also involves ten researchers including Lucio Amato.
“In the investigation into the design of the foundation urban nucleus – explain the Authors – all possible factors were considered, and first of all investigated, through an in-depth analysis of ancient sources, the rich and effervescent cultural climate, Ionian-Pythagorean, which the new studies on number and geometry that flourished around the middle of the 6th century BC with Thales and the Pre-Socratic philosophers up to Pythagoras of Samos, had inspired”.
The authors were thus able to give a new answer to the hypotheses on the singular geometric matrix of the route of Neapolis, on the layout of the walls in relation to the urban layout and the morphology of the soil, on the location of the city gates, on the location of public facilities , on the distribution and typology of residences within the blocks.
