contact: Jeff Matthews

Naples: Life, Death, and Miracles is a miscellany of entries written from October 2002 through the present. In a previous version on the internet, it was called the Around Naples Encyclopedia. It is purposely an idiosyncratic presentation of my personal observations on the general culture of Naples—history, art, archaeology, music, traffic, geology, literature, the evil eye, pizza and anything else that struck and still strikes my fancy. I have included a  number of items about southern Italy, in general, beyond the immediate area of Naples. There is also an additional section on the island of Sardinia. Besides the alphabetical index, there is a Portal Index with entries grouped into general subject areas.

  Other than the main entries on Naples, there is other material accessible from this link: "other articles".  The material in the "other articles" section was originally written by Jeff Matthews or David Taylor, authors of A Brief History of Naples and Other Tales  (©Fotoprogetti Press, Naples, 1994).  (Occasional third authors are indicated in the by-lines.) All of the items in that book originally appeared in  the Lion Magazine, an English-language magazine about the Naples area, founded by Tony Quattrone and subsequently written and edited by him, Matthews and Taylor. It was published monthly between 1987 and 1996 in Naples.

First, have a brief look at all the menu items. Then, the "site map" should be helpful. If you want to start looking through things to read, go to "other articles", the "index" or the Portal Index, a grouping into rough subject areas such as "music" and "literature."  Most entries have at least one internal link that will take you to additional, relevant items as you read. If you want to read a straight, chronological history of Naples, open "articles" and look at the top section, marked "chronological history". There is a separate "graphics" page with larger photos -- see menu bar, above.)

This page is maintained by me, Jeff Matthews. You can email me by clicking on my name, underlined in the previous sentence. I welcome comments.

Please respect the "fair use" principle in your use of the contents of Naples: Life, Death & Miracles. That is, please don't copy it, distribute it, or otherwise "borrow" it without my permission. Also, if you quote it, please acknowledge the source. 

 

(update: September 2020) About me: I grew up in Los Angeles, California, but have lived and worked in Naples for about 45 years. Most of the time I've taught English as a Second Language to Italian students at the Orientale University as well as to military personnel from many nations stationed at the NATO base in Bagnoli. I was also involved for many years with the continuing education program for the University of Maryland University College in Naples, where I taught English composition, literature and linguistics to US military personnel. I also taught Music History of Naples for the ElderHostel program in Sorrento. I have an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Hawaii but have also attended the U. of Heidelberg, Germany (I have no dueling scar) and the Music Conservatory in Graz, Austria. At various times in my life, I have been a mailman, a taxi driver, a trombone player and an oil refinery roustabout. I seem to have a short attention span, which is why I write about so many different things in this encyclopedia. I have grown to love history, but astronomy is pretty nice, too, as is juggling. I once rode a bicycle across the US.  (I think I also wrote a sentence one time that did NOT start with 'I'.) I am intensely concerned about whether or not quantum entanglement violates the Theory of Relativity. If you know, please tell me. The last book I read was a German translation of an Agatha Christie novel. You may read about that experience here.

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