Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:16:25.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

VIII - A Day of “Justice”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2023

Silvana D'Alessio
Affiliation:
University of Salerno, Italy
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Masaniello continues to deal with the food supply; he also hands outassorted ‘patents’ to his plebeian friends. Thanks to thecontemporary sources, we can lay out their life stories, which oftenshare traits in common with Masaniello’s own. With theviceroy’s assent, he deals out justice at the Market, as if hewere the city’s long-desired ‘justicer’. ButMasaniello’s harsh rulings provoke revulsion. The sources showhow he naively thinks that he acts here in harmony with the viceroy. Awitness writes, ‘he was assisted by royal judges.’

Keywords: Masaniello’s friends, prostitution,violence, passions, executions, fear.

The Plebeians Seen Up Close

The next day, Masaniello resumed his various tasks, above all, providing forthe people’s sustenance. He issued a decree addressing the foodsupply. Oil was short, as the big dealers, facing newly fixed low retailprices, were instead selling in bulk to the convents or the rich. So,Masaniello commanded them either to sell to the shopkeepers or to appearbefore him. Besides that, he gave out orders concerning public safety, asign that he much feared new sorties by the bandits. This is a clue that hehad begun to dissociate the bandits from the viceroy.

The most faithful people of this most faithful city of Naples, havingcome to know that those who own the oil cisterns are selling it at ahigh price per stara to monasteries and rich persons tothe grave prejudice and damage of the citizens, and, desiring to remedythis inconvenience, we order and command all the persons who have oilcisterns who are selling it by the stara [ca. tenlitres] that from today on, under pain of rebellion, they should notsell it except to shopkeepers and to those who sell it by the quartaround Naples. And if they want to buy by the starathey should come to us.

Besides, we order and command under the same pain all the captains, bothof the ottine [districts] and of the infantry, thatthey provide the artillery with bags of musket balls or with cartridgesof tin full of the aforesaid balls, because the range is short, whereballs don’t work.

Type
Chapter
Information
Masaniello
The Life and Afterlife of a Neapolitan Revolutionary
, pp. 147 - 156
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×