MASANIELLO

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 835 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAR-MEC

MASANIELLO , an abbreviation of ToMMASO ANIELLO (16221647), an Amalfi fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in Naples in 1647. Misgovernment and fiscal oppression having aroused much discontent throughout the two Sicilies, a revolt broke out at Palermo in May 1647, and the people of Naples followed the example of the Sicilians. The immediate occasion of the latter rising was a new tax on fruit, the

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

food of the poor, and the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

instigator of the

movement

MOVEMENT

was Masaniello, who took command of the malcontents. The outbreak began on the 7th of July 1647 with a riot at the city gates between the fruit-vendors of the environs and the customs officers; the latter were forced to flee, and the customs office was burnt. The rioters then poured into Naples and forced their way into the palace of the viceroy, the hated Count d'Arcos, who had to take

refuge

REFUGE

first in a neighbouring convent, then in Castel Sant' Elmo, and finally in Castelnuovo. Masaniello attempted to discipline the mob and restrain its vandalic instincts, and to some extent he succeeded; attired in his fisherman's garb, he gave audiences and administered justice from a wooden scaffolding outside his

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

. Several rioters, including the duke of Maddaloni, an opponent of the viceroy, and his brother Giuseppe Caraffa, who had come to Naples to make trouble, were condemned to death by him and executed. The mob, which every day obtained more arms and was becoming more intractable, terrorized the city, drove off the troops summoned from outside, and elected Masaniello " captain-general "; the revolt was even spreading to the provinces. Finally, the viceroy, whose negotiations with Masaniello had been frequently interrupted by fresh tumults, ended by granting all the concessions demanded of him. On the 13th of July, through the mediation of Cardinal Filomarino, archbishop of Naples, a convention was signed between D'Arcos and Masaniello as " leader of the most faithful people of Naples," by which the rebels were pardoned, the more oppressive taxes removed, and the citizens granted certain rights, including that of remainingin arms until the treaty should have been ratified by the king of Spain. The astute D'Arcos then invited Masaniello to the palace, confirmed his title of "captain-general of the Neapolitan people," gave him a gold chain of office, and offered him a pension. Masaniello refused the pension and laid down his dignities, saying that he wished to return to his old life as a fisherman; but he was entertained by the viceroy and, partly owing to the strain and excitement of the past days, partly because he was made dizzy by his astonishing

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

of fortune, or perhaps, as it was believed, because he was poisoned, he lost his head and behaved like a frenzied maniac. The people continued to obey him for some days, until, abandoned by his best friends, who went over to the Spanish party, he was murdered while haranguing a mob on the market-place on the 16th of July 1647; his head was cut off and brought by a band of roughs to the viceroy and the

body

BODY

buried outside the city. But the next day the populace, angered by the alteration of the

measures

MEASURES

for weighing bread, repented of its insane fury; the

body

BODY

of Masaniello was dug up and given a splendid funeral, at which the viceroy himself was represented.
Masaniello's insurrection appealed to the imagination of poets and composers, and formed the subject of several operas, of which the most famous is Auber's La Muette de Portici (1828).
See Saavedra, Insurrection de Napoli en 1647 (2 vols., Madrid, 1849) ; A. von Reumont, Die Caraffa von Maddaloni (2 vols., Berlin, 1849) Capasso, La Casa e famiglia di Masaniello (Naples, 1893) ; V. Spinazzola, Masaniello e la sua famiglia, secondo un codice bolognese del sec. xvi. (in the review Flegrea, 1900) ; A. G. Meissner, Masaniello (in German) ; E. Bourg, Masaniello (in French) ; F. Palermo, Documenti diversi sulle novita accadute in Napoli l'anno 1647 (in the Archivio storico italiano, 1st

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

, vol. ix.). See also NAPLES.

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