PhD Program in Historical studies
Stilo
One of the most important Calabrians, Tommaso Campanella was born in Stilo on 5 September 1568. He entered the Dominican Order while still a child and undertook his studies in Calabria between San Giorgio MorgetoLocated in the current province of Reggio Calabria, San Giorgio Morgeto is a small centre whose origins go back to the Byzantine period, it was the fief of the Milano family from 1560 onwards. The local convent of the Dominicans, founded in the fifteenth century, was a centre for the teaching of Theology and Philosophy, where Tommaso Campanella studied. Seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1783, San Giorgio Morgeto lost some of its most representative places. The convent of the Dominicans itself was reconstructed in a Baroque style., NicastroNicastro was an independent city until 1968 when it fused with Sambiase and Sant’Eufemia Lamezia, giving rise to the munipality of Lamezia Terme, of which it is currently the most popolated quarter. Going back to the Byzantine period Nicastro is famous in the early modern period for having been the place of studies of Tommaso Campanella, who mentions Nicastro fondly in some passages of De sensu rerum et magia. and Cosenza. Nonetheless Campanella found his path in the personal study of Classical authors (such as Plato, Galen, Democritus and Pliny) and in the study of the philosopher from Consenza, Bernardino TelesioBernardino Telesio (1509-1588) was born and died in Cosenza. A philosopher, his naturalism influenced thinkers such as Tommaso Campanella, Giordano Bruno, Descartes and Francis Bacon. In his thought, the forces of nature are the origin of all phenomena and also of all consciousness and of the ethical life of man. His principal work is De rerum natura iuxta propria principia (1565-1586.). Beginning with Telesio’s naturalism and sensism, Campanella arrived at a peculiar synthesis with neoplatonism, expressed in works like Philosophia sensibus demonstrata (1591) and De sensu rerum et magia (1620). Nevertheless, the fame of the Dominican friar is above all due to the Città del Sole (1602), a utopian work which describes an ideal city which is communist and theocratic, guided by a priest-king, dedicated to the cult of the sun god. The personal experience of Campanella mirrors the condition of Calabria in the Baroque period in two ways: the constant attention given to his ideas by the eccesiastical authorities, concerned with every form of heresy in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, and his attempt to lead a conspiracy, in 1599, against Spanish rule, the abuse of the nobility and the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Arrested several times, tortured and tried (he feigned insanity in order to avoid the death penalty), Campanella spent 27 years in prison in Naples and another three in Rome under the Holy Office. After having lived in Rome for five years thanks to the favour of Urban VIII from 1633 he settled in Paris, under the protection of Louis XIII and of cardinal Richelieu, until his death, on 21 May 1639.
Stilo, the hometown of Campanella, has lost a great part of its Baroque appearance after the earthquake of 1783. The church of San Biagio al Borgo remains (where the philosopher was baptized), that of San Domenico (where Campanella lived and wrote some of his works) and that of San Francesco, whose facade is a good example of Baroque art in front of which there is a monument in honour of Campanella. A testimony to the widespread presence of Religious Orders in Calabria during the Baroque period is that of the Capuchin church and that of Santa Chiara, with the adjoining convent of the Clarisses.