Libraries of Humanists and of the Elites in Southern Italy

In the last decades the scholars have increasingly focused their attention on the 15th century libraries belonging to the ruling families (e.g. the Medici in Florence, or the Aragonese kings in Naples). Although similar institutions were organized also by other prominent Italian families, like the Strozzi in Florence or some cardinals competing with the pontifical library at the Vatican (eg., the Colonna or Farnese families), we have few information about the libraries organized by noble families of the South Italy. The most part of these libraries were in Naples (eg., that of Diomede Carafa), but there were also courts and libraries recreated by noble families (e.g. Del Balzo, Gesualdo, and Orsini) in their possessions outside Naples, and libraries belonging to some humanist, like the magnificent library of the Calabrese humanist Parrhasius, now preserved at the National Library of Naples. Unless we have the library itself, as in the case of Parrhasius, the sources about these libraries are the index of the books confiscated by the king Ferrante to the rebel barons, some mss. still extant coming from these libraries, few archival documents, scattered hints in the works of the writers who were members of these courts. My purpose is to provide an overview, based on the documents still available, about these libraries, their history, organization, the books which they contained and their dispersion.