Un groupe social ambigu. Organisation, stratégies et représentations de la noblesse napolitaine, XVIe-XVIIe siècles

Résumé En

The Neapolitan Nobility. The analysis of the Neapolitan nobility in this paper is focused on two levels through the study of the representations provided by the various segments of the nobility itself (the aristocracy di seggio titled and unlited nobility) during the XVIth and XVIIIth centuries and through the nominative reconstruction of Neapolitan feudality in the mid XVIth century. From this analysis emerges complex and hierarchical social group in which the horizontal dimension of social stratification coexists with phenomena of solidarity and vertical dependence. Family seggio faction mani fest the social forms which allowed the continuity of feudal power in the early modern era regardless of the political change represented by the Spanish domination. The turning point in the social history of the Neapolitan nobility takes place in the and with the growing split between the feudal nobility and the nobility di seg gio and the rise of new social groups and thus opens the way to the qualitative transformation of the nobility studied by Villari.