The late medieval Kingdom of Naples: New Approaches

What kind of state was the kingdom of Naples in the late Middle Ages? It was a bureaucratic and autoritarian state. Its long-lasting administration was stable and integrated all local powers in a system. The administrative machinery worked at all levels with the same procedures and the same documentary formats. Anyone at all could be caught up in the wheels of this administration. It was not based on pactismo, as the Spanish call it, because the monarchy was never called into question (the single dynasty was). The king was the source of law and of exceptions. The royal offices, particularly the sommaria, had strict control of private and public wealth and of the possession of fiefs, fiscal and juridical rights, for many reasons and in many ways. It was a wide network of social groups, attached to a local place or to a family tradition but all theoretically connected with the face-to-face circle of the king. All generally shared the same political language. It is still worth detailed study (and we not lacking in sources) because generalised representations of it have so far prevented us from giving due attention to its true historical character