It Is Not a Miracle…

In assorted works of the dawning eighteenth century, Masaniello receivedoccasional mention, a page or more, seldom at all flattering. First, PaoloMattia Doria, in his famous Relazione dello stato politico,economico e civile del Regno di Napoli [Relation of thePolitical, Economic and Civil Condition of the Kingdom ofNaples] (1709–1712) remarked that the rise of afishmonger like Masaniello made patent the crisis besetting the kingdom.Then Giannone, in his Dell’istoria civile del regno diNapoli, which for the kingdom’s revolts looked to theseventeenth-century Historia della repubblica veneta ofGian Battista Nani, referred to Masaniello’s rise as a phenomenon ofthose grim years. Once in command, Giannone wrote, Masaniello began to rulewith unchecked authority: “Head of the Seditious, and Soul of theInsurrection, proposed the Pretensions, imposed Silence, disposed theMotions, and, as if he had the Destiny of them all in his Power, killed witha Nod, and set fire with a Look; for, to what Place so-ever he beckoned,Heads were struck off, and Houses kindled.”