Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero
engraving, mid-eighteenth century
An evolving historical inquiry · Naples
A research cabinet devoted to Raimondo di Sangro—his experiments, intellectual networks, chapel, symbolism, and the unusually persistent legends that gathered around him.
Purpose
The Cabinet will grow dossier by dossier: primary texts, scholarly findings, site observations, unresolved questions, and clearly marked interpretations. Its purpose is to preserve the wonder of the subject without allowing legend to masquerade as documentation.
Index of drawers
Select a drawer for its central line of inquiry. New records can be added here as the archive develops.
Raimondo di Sangro as aristocrat, author, inventor, publisher, and participant in the learned and Masonic culture of eighteenth-century Naples.
Begin with the opening file →The Cappella Sansevero as a dynastic monument, an artistic program, and a source of later initiatory interpretation.
Examine the first question →A source-critical study of the prince’s reported experiments, technical publications, printing work, and material inventions.
See the evidence method →A working bibliography that distinguishes contemporary testimony, later retellings, modern scholarship, and unsupported folklore.
See the evidence method →
Interior of the Cappella Sansevero
Giorgio Sommer, before 1915
Opening file · PC–001
The strongest reading must begin with what Raimondo and his contemporaries actually wrote, commissioned, and saw—then distinguish that record from the symbolic systems and occult legends attached to the chapel later.
Research discipline
Every record will identify the strength of its source trail rather than flattening fact, inference, and legend into one story.
Supported by a primary source, physical evidence, or strong scholarly consensus.
A reasoned interpretation consistent with the record, but not directly demonstrated.
A compelling later claim whose origin or historical support remains uncertain.
The collection has begun