Robin L. Thomas’s elegantly written and richly illustrated account of the urban transformation of Naples during the reign of Charles of Bourbon (1734–59) highlights the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies’s place on the map of eighteenth-century Europe. Although other major European cities have received ample attention from scholars of early modern architecture, Naples has suffered from relative scholarly neglect despite its status as one of Europe’s largest and most culturally vibrant capitals. Furthermore, the few historical accounts of early modern Neapolitan architecture have tended to focus on questions of style rather than on the city’s participation in the broader trends that define eighteenth-century architecture. This tendency has privileged the stylistic singularity of the work of the city’s native architects and thus provincialized the cosmopolitan capital. Thomas’s ambitious book seeks to rectify this problem by reconsidering the major buildings and spaces of Caroline Naples, many of which were built by foreign architects at the behest of a court that was eager to establish its legitimacy in a kingdom where ecclesiastic, civic, and baronial entities initially exercised considerable power. What emerges is a sensitive and nuanced consideration of how the buildings and spaces of Caroline Naples served as integral elements within the crown’s campaign to centralize power and reform the kingdom. In this sense, the buildings of Caroline Naples emerge from the book not as mere symbols of authority but rather as agents of change.

Inspired by recent historical accounts of how other European monarchs shaped the built environment in an effort to assert their legitimacy, Thomas has crafted a work that liberates eighteenth-century Neapolitan architecture from relative obscurity by bringing to light how a newly arrived monarch reshaped a disordered and politically divided viceregal city into a modern capital under royal control. Ecclesiastics, magistrates, and a baronial class of nobles eagerly sought to maintain their prerogatives as the court pursued a pragmatic strategy aimed at expanding monarchical power. As Thomas makes clear, Charles’s regime was by no means absolutist, and as such, the crown accomplished its objectives through strategic partnerships and small modifications to the existing political and social framework that collectively added up to significant change. Although architecture played a key role in this endeavor, the result was not a visionary building campaign projected by the court but rather a succession of independently planned projects executed over decades and in response to Naples’s changing political climate and the exigencies of urban reform.

The book is organized into five chapters, each of which deals with a different project begun during Charles’s reign. Careful visual analyses of these individual projects complement detailed accounts of their planning, financing, execution, and reception. Thomas expertly weaves together the stories of a theater, an institute for the care of the ill and destitute, a cavalry barracks, a grand piazza, and a spectacular map to illuminate how the public sphere and Enlightenment discourses of reform contributed to the court’s understanding of architecture as a powerful tool of statecraft. The result is a sum that is greater than its parts. Together these works served to strengthen the sovereignty of the crown at home while projecting a favorable image of Caroline Naples abroad.

The role of architecture in the consolidation of political power is plainly evident in the first major project of Charles’s reign, the Teatro di San Carlo, the subject of the book’s first chapter. Begun in 1737, only three years into Charles’s reign, the project allowed the monarchy to harness the city’s famed musical culture in an effort to consolidate power at the expense of the nobility. Although ostensibly a venue for the enjoyment of opera for which Naples was renowned throughout Europe, the San Carlo was also very much a political space in which the nobility’s place within the social order could be controlled. Connected to the royal palace, the theater provided boxes that could be doled out by the crown as a means of recognition, with proximity to the king functioning as a prominent symbol of favor at court. In this manner, the theater was a harbinger of what was to come, for it bound the nobility to the crown and thus signaled the debut of the consolidation of monarchical power that would define Charles’s reign. Historians of opera and theater will be particularly interested in Thomas’s provocative discussion of the manner in which the vast size of the theater and its horseshoe auditorium influenced significant developments in operatic music and theater design not only in Naples but elsewhere in Europe.

Efforts to transform Naples also forced the court to navigate through the dangerous terrain of ecclesiastical privilege as well. Care of the sick and destitute remained divided among a host of religious institutions that were ill equipped to deal with the city’s numerous mendicants who flocked to the city from the countryside. Eager to deal with the problem, the crown sought to consolidate the functions of the various hospices, hospitals, and luoghi pii that dotted the city in the formation of a single institution, the Albergo dei Poveri, the subject of the second chapter. Building on the work of other scholars, Thomas’s discussion provides a more detailed chronology of the project while shedding new light on the Roman architect Ferdinando Fuga’s role in its design and construction. By situating the building within the court’s broader diplomatic conflict with the church, Thomas provides an intriguing discussion of how the architecture of the compound served as a means of wresting control from Neapolitan ecclesiastical institutions and the Holy See.

The third chapter provides an insightful discussion of the cavalry barracks at the Ponte della Maddalena in Naples, a project that played a key role in Charles’s efforts to reform the military into a more professional force than the one he had inherited. Designed by the king’s favorite architect, Luigi Vanvitelli, the austere and imposing building provided a highly visible symbol of the monarchy’s authority over the city while also reinforcing the hierarchical organization of Charles’s forces through the arrangement of its interior spaces according to rank and function. Thomas’s command of the details of Charles’s military reforms and his sensitive reading of the building’s plan and form provides essential context for understanding how the building served to bind the nobility to the crown, reinforce loyalty and discipline within the regimental ranks, and deter insurrection within a city known for its unruly past.

Architecture also played a key role in the crown’s efforts to reform trade and commerce in Naples as evinced in the fourth chapter’s discussion of the Foro Carolino designed by Vanvitelli. Tracing the origins of the project from the reorganization of the city’s port to the ephemeral architecture erected for city fairs and festivals, the chapter highlights how a project ostensibly controlled by the urban aristocracy was co-opted and carefully steered by the crown in an effort to foster urban development and economic renewal. Consideration of the work alongside similar projects in other European capitals illuminates how it reshaped the relationship between the court and civic authorities by crafting a space that was at once royal, residential, and commercial. The project not only provided Naples with a magnificent public space dominated by the crown, but also provided a point of departure for future projects within the city such as the Mercato Grande and Piazza del Plebiscito.

The collective result of the architectural projects and urban interventions of Charles’s reign is addressed in the fifth and final chapter’s discussion of the monumental map of Naples sponsored by the city government and promoted by the polymath and nobleman Giovanni Carafa, Duke of Noja (1715–1768). As Thomas notes, “The king recognized the power of print” (157), and indeed the Duke of Noja map served to project a propagandistic image of Caroline Naples far beyond the borders of the kingdom. Composed of thirty-five plates, the map included an ichnographic plan of Naples, a veduta of the city, perspectival representations of the surrounding terrain, allegorical representations, heraldic symbols, and dedicatory inscriptions that together served to celebrate the prosperity of Charles’s reign.

Thomas’s book also has the virtue of raising important questions regarding the reception and legacy of Charles’s transformation of Naples. For instance, the book’s conclusion delves into his efforts to enact a similar agenda of reform in his new capital of Madrid, where he arrived in 1759. Although Charles’s attempt to assert monarchical power over noble and ecclesiastical privilege met here with open rebellion and civic unrest, Thomas asks probing questions regarding the reasons for the program’s failure that merit further scrutiny. In this sense, the book provides a springboard for future scholarship.

By focusing on the manner in which architecture served to further Charles’s agenda as King of the Two Sicilies, Thomas makes a significant contribution to an understanding of Caroline Naples as one of Europe’s most sophisticated capitals. With sensitive readings of prints, drawing, buildings, and urban space, Thomas draws attention to how issues of patronage, politics, economics, and social history informed the built environment of Charles’s capital city. Meticulously researched, clearly organized, elegantly written, and carefully edited, Thomas’s book offers a rich feast for early modern art and architectural historians as well as scholars of music, politics, and history.