The Fire at the House of the Gabella dellafrutta

In the night between 6 and 7 June, on the Feast of the Ascension, the houseof the fruit gabella was set on fire. The attack wasorganized by Andrea Naclerio, because he was certain, he said, that thisgabella would have caused him to be dragged through thestreets of Naples. He hoped to alarm the viceroy and the visitatoregenerale, who oversaw the courts, and force them to abolish it.He worked hard to carry the action off, gathering men he trusted for theirabilities, like Giuseppe Palumbo. At the time, Palumbo was in prison, as awitness in a smuggling trial, but Eletto Naclerio convincedthe viceroy to free him on the pretext that Palumbo could help calm theplebs at the market, for he had an air of authority thanks to his manykinfolk at the Conceria district and his skill with weapons. He had, amongother things, taken part in the city’s defence against the Frenchthreat in October 1641. Perhaps Palumbo then drew in others: GiuseppeFattorusso, Miccaro Perrone (a bandit chief), Savino Zaccardo (a friar atthe Carmine convent), and Masaniello himself. On the participation ofMasaniello, the revolt’s future head, we have evidence from thechronicler Tommaso De Fiore. To his mind, Masaniello himself had laterclaimed responsibility for the fire on the revolt’s first day.Climbing onto a workbench, he is said to have exclaimed, “It was Iwho a few days ago set the fire and made the house of the gabellade’ frutti burn.