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In the accounts of disaster of the early modern period, it seemed as though the heroes were missing, replaced by the anthropomorphic rage of the natural elements. Nevertheless, it did sometimes happen that singular figures emerged from the blurry mass of the people and their dramatic anecdotes, and sprang into action to address the emergency. Sometimes they were saints, sometimes local institutions: the former were invoked to mediate with heaven to placate divine anger through miracles, and the latter to manage the catastrophe and provide aid and relief. The chapters in this volume reflect on this composite phenomenon of salvific actions, especially when they assumed the character of heroic gestures suspended between reality and fiction, human and divine, ordinary and extraordinary.

Questo contributo intende proporre una riflessione sulle configurazioni e gli andamenti testuali delle narrazioni di disastri naturali in testi in volgare di età moderna a prevalente focus informativo e narrativo. Le riflessioni sono sorrette da riferimenti a un corpus di testi connessi, in modi diversi, al Regno di Napoli: cronache manoscritte redatte tra età aragonese (1443-1503) e prima età vicereale; alcune delle numerose relazioni su disastri naturali che vennero date alle stampe, lungo tutto il corso del Seicento, proprio in seguito al crescente interesse per i disastri naturali. Nel saggio sono descritte alcune modalità di ricostruzione narrativa adottate in generi a prevalente vocazione narrativa/memoriale o narrativa/informativa tra tardo medioevo ed età moderna; in seconda battuta, si riconnettono eventuali mutamenti nelle forme del racconto a due aspetti tra loro interrelati: la nuova centralità dei disastri naturali nei dibattiti culturali e nei circuiti comunicativi delle società di antico regime tra Sei- e Settecento; la progressiva narrativizzazione del disastro attraverso l’elaborazione di strategie capaci di governare il rapporto tra i dati dell’esperienza storica e la ricostruzione discorsiva.

Traumatic events may instigate a growth in the “devotional demand” by strengthening the role of saints within society. Hagiography offers, in fact, extensive accounts of earthquakes, eruptions, floods, epidemics, invasions, bloody battles and other disasters that may be ascribed to human or natural causes. This paper focuses on the hagiographic texts produced in Naples between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries and deals in particular with Paolo Regio’s works. The first noticeable signs of the Spanish decline become apparent during this chronological period; hence the “disaster” (in its broadest sense) becomes the catalyst of new political and religious alliances and encourages to build, deconstruct and reconstruct social identities which are conveyed by the organizations of rites, ceremonies, processions as well as networks of patronage in support of old and new cults.