A study that combines the history of Naples and digital technologies. It is "Forma Urbis Neapolis. Genesis and permanence of the Greek city's design," a volume by Alfredo Buccaro, Alfonso Mele, and Teresa Tauro that systematizes all the data known to date on Neapolis, presented in a crowded Aula Magna of the University of Federico II. Starting from the clues deducible from an initial study by Teresa Tauro on the Ionic geometric matrix of the settlement and from the 'cross' reading of bibliographic, documentary, iconographic, and archaeological data, systematized by Alfredo Buccaro with the team of CIRICE (Interdepartmental Research Center on the Iconography of the European City) of the Federician university with the use of Digital Urban History tools, an attempt was made to recognize the Forma Urbis Neapolis, tracing a reconstruction destined to be placed in the long cartographic tradition concerning the history of our city. The research was able to benefit from the valuable contribution of Alfonso Mele, a distinguished scholar of the history of the Greek world.
"An important and useful study both for professionals and for citizens who want to know more about Naples and the link between modern Naples and ancient Naples. It is a tool that allows us to better understand our cultural identity, starting at the moment of foundation, and to appreciate it more because often we walk without knowing the history that is under our feet, and how Naples was conceived by our founders according to principles almost of an urbanistically ideal city. It is a volume that is browsed with great pleasure and for those who really want to know more there is much to learn," explained Rector Matteo Lorito.
"The perspective of the volume is to have systematized all the available data on the history of the Greek city having reconstructed with the data and digital tools that our University and, in particular, the Cirice center has. With these digital tools, we were able to georeference the historical maps by combining an alphanumeric database with archaeological findings, archive documents that have been put together and united like the pieces of a mosaic and we composed them obtaining a design of a stone document that is under our feet every day. Now we can use formidable tools: this digital map is already online, we can browse it and everyone can enjoy it and it is also a tool for enhancing our heritage remembering that the historic center has been a Unesco heritage since 1995," said Professor Alfredo Buccaro. "From this analysis, it emerges that the city was designed ex novo and it is a very new aspect compared to the old archaic cities, meaning it was born with a harmonic and proportional project. This work required very in-depth studies, archaeological surveys for twenty years and more and we have arrived at this form through geometry," emphasized architect Teresa Tauro.
For the Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano "it is important to tell the historical stratification of the city of Naples which, at the center of the Mediterranean, has seen many civilizations overlap from the first settlement of Neapolis, then the Romans, the Byzantines, the Normans, the Swabians, the Angevins, and the Aragonese. Many civilizations each of which has left us something and walking through Naples, paying a little attention, the walls, the stones speak to us and tell us this story." "This research is important to study the shape of the city, its growth, and its development starting from the considerations that Naples is made of many stratifications but still retains the original layout and imprint. Our city today is experiencing a series of discoveries that allow us to touch the Greek and Roman imprint. They are an ancient trace that lives with us and we must show to the Neapolitans and the many tourists that there still exists a Greek and Roman Naples and in some places, we can get there. I think these studies can help us build an archaeological path that can be an additional heritage of knowledge and memory of an extraordinary Naples," said Mayor Gaetano Manfredi.
The Digital Map of Neapolis devised by Buccaro and Tauro, elaborated by the team of CIRICE, is available on the website www.iconografiacittaeuropea.unina.it under the section "Forma Urbis Neapolis".