Cosenza

The capital of Calabria Citra Naethum during the period of Aragonese domination, Cosenza was an important cultural centre and of intellectual debate in the early modern period. During Spanish rule (Cosenza was part, as all of Calabria, of the viceroyalty of Naples) the city was the capital of the province of Calabria Citeriore and the home of the Accademia Cosentina (the Academy of Cosenza, which still exists) whose most important leader was the philosopher and naturalist Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588), born in Cosenza. The presence of various Religious Orders in the city was reinforced between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, with the arrival, among others, of the Jesuits, who began to construct their college (one of the most important in the region) in 1599. Cosenza also played an important role in the revolutionary episodes of 1647 and 1648, along with the so-called Masaniello revolt which broke out during those years in Naples.