itineraries 11/10/08

“
Speaking of the arts, we believe that we should make a special mention of
Raimondo di Sangro, who has illustrated many arts through his personal taste and
his inventions. It could be said of him exactly what Fontenelle said of another man
of letters, namely that he housed an entire academy inside himself …
He had made some great discoveries in the science of nature, as one may
judge from some which we will report, as a sample. He had the skill to make a
liquid similar in weight, colour, taste and in all the other qualities to the blood of
animals… He held the secret of a lamplight which he called eternal… To him the
art of printing owes the secret of engraving with a single turn of the press and with a
single copperplate any figure whatsoever made up of any number of colours… He
possessed the secret of colouring marbles in all their depths. He even went so far as
to make some lapis lazuli which, on being examined by some German chemists,
did not show any difference from real ones… Eloidric painting was not the least of
his inventions: it had the charm of the miniature and the strength of the oil
painting.
Turning his thoughts to the things that affect our lives nearer home, he had
invented a light cloth which was completely waterproof… He knew how to extract
silk from that vegetable called Apocynum, and how to make wax with every kind of
flower…
If Raimondo had wished to make more appearances in the world of letters
and fine arts with these materials, perhaps no one would have done it more
splendidly than him. But he had no ambition to be an author: some secrets he has
communicated to his friends, while the others have either died with him or lie
unknown in some corner of his house.
”
Giuseppe Maria Galanti, Breve descrizione di Napoli, MDCCXCII
(A Brief Description of Naples, 1792)
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Raimondo di Sangro
text by Fabrizio Masucci
I t was a Sunday in July 1770 when along the coast of Naples there thronged a huge crowd to admire what appeared to be a marvel:
an elegant coach complete with horses and coachman was proceeding swiftly along the stretch of sea separating Capo Posillipo from
Ponte della Maddalena. The horses were in fact made of cork and the coach was cleaving the waves thanks to an ingenious system of
rotary blades forming a wheel, a remarkable contraption invented by Raimondo di Sangro, the seventh Prince of Sansevero. It was he
who had now stirred up the wonder of the Parthenopeians for the umpteenth time, but now regrettably, for the last time, as the prince
was to pass away but a month later in the heart of the ancient city of Naples a few steps away from the San Severo Chapel, the monument
which even surpassing all his writings and experiments remains the most extraordinary creation of his achievements. A lifetime spent
passionately amid unusual pursuits Raimondo di Sangro (Torremaggiore 1710-Naples 1771 ) proved capable of catalyzing a multitude
of legends around himself and creating a myth which still stands the test of the passing centuries. A valiant man of arms who
commissioned masterpieces of art such as the “Shrouded Christ”, a heterodox intellect, keen supporter of the Enlightenment movement,
Sansevero Chapel: La Pudicizia (Modesty) by Antonio Corradini, 1752
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the first Grand Master of the Neapolitan Free Masonry, alchemist, tireless experimenter and researcher: the
Prince of Sansevero was all this, a versatile genius, as Giangiuseppe Origlia, his eighteenth-century biographer
recounts, “whom it was impossible to confine within the constraints of a single object”.
It was early understood that he was endowed with an exceptional mind. Scion of a high-ranking noble lineage
he was born in Puglia, in one of the vast landed estates belonging to the Sansevero family. To commence his
early education Raimondo was transferred after just one year to Naples, the then capital of the Austrian
Viceroyalty, where his ancestors had taken up residence in an imposing edifice in Piazza San Domenico
Maggiore. But it was from here - Origlia goes on to relate - that “his excessive high spirits and high-powered
intellect” induced his family to send him to Rome to the College of Jesuits, the most prestigious school of the
day. Here he applied himself with amazing profit to the study of philosophy and languages (he ended up by
mastering at least eight!), pyrotechnics and natural sciences, hydrostatics and military architecture. In the
Roman seminary he also learned about the works and nature museum of Athenasius Kircher, the celebrated
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Sansevero Chapel: The Sweetness of the Marital Yoke by Paolo Persico, 1768
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Sansevero Chapel: Il Cristo velato (The Shrouded Christ) by G. Sanmartino, 1753
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Sansevero Chapel: The Vaulted Ceiling: The Glory of Paradise by F.M. Russo, 1749
seventeenth-century scientist and Egyptologist, whose texts
were full of cross-references to the hermetic tradition. The
year 1729 marked his exceptional debut as inventor. On
being required to construct a stage in the College courtyard
that would disappear to make room for cavalry
manoeuvrings immediately following a theatrical
representation, the project drawn up by the nineteen-year
old prince, which made provision both for the raising and
the book-like closing of the stage within a few minutes was
the one chosen from an examination of all the projects
designed by the leading engineers of the time. On marrying
Carlotta Gaetani of Aragon and returning to Naples for
good Raimondo di Sangro received the highest honours of
the kingdom from the new sovereign, Charles of Bourbon
including his appointment to the rank of regimental
colonel. However it was his laboratory achievements in his
own residence that were to acclaim him as a celebrity both
within and outside the Realm. He presented a special
harquebus to the Court, which fired both with powder and
under compression, as well as a completely waterproof
material which Charles was wont to protect himself with
during his winter hunting pursuits.
He invented a very light cannon with a greater range than
normal, thanks to an alloy of his own creation the formula
for which he kept rigorously secret. He devised a
pyrotechnical theatre whose explosions produced bird songs
and which displayed a wide variety of colours (di Sangro
was the first to create an emerald green fire colour), and a
hydraulic machine able to pump water to any height.
Enrolled in the Crusca, the most important Italian literary
academy with the name of “Esercitato” or “The
Experienced One”; he published the “Practice of Military
Exercises for the Infantry” in 1747. His competence in the
military arts won him the acclaim of Louis XV of France
and of Frederick II of Prussia, while all the Spanish troops
adopted the efficacious exercises he prescribed.
His studies went ahead along with his experiments and
centred on texts outlawed by the Church of Rome, and on
the works of the transalpine thinkers and those from
overseas. His innate curiosity, his prevalently esoteric
conception of knowledge together with a mind that was
open to the innovative ideas of European Enlightenment
AlÓs Archive: Apologetic Letter - Table III - Transliteration in Quipu of the main alphabets
AlÓs Archive: Apologetic Letter - Table I - The 40 main words.
naturally led him towards Freemasonry, the secret society through which so many of those new ideas were to be
promoted. Thus, in August 1750 Raimondo di Sangro accepted the appointment of Great Master of the
Neapolitan Lodge. During the same year in his private printing works he prepared the printing of a book which,
combined with the discovery of his activity among the Free Builders, projected him to the centre of an
international trial “case” which procured for him equally staunch admirers and enemies alike. The work was
the “Lettera Apologetica” or “Letter of Defence” by the academic member of the Crusca ‘Esercitato’ containing
the justification of the book entitled “Letters of a Peruvian woman regarding the supposed Quipu written to the
Duchess of S****and published by the same”. It was presented formally as a light-hearted exaltation on his part
of the efficacy of an ancient system of communication used by the Incas of Peru, who made use of variouslycoloured knotted strings to take the place of writing- the so-called “quipu”- for recording accounts and events.
But the Incaic knots provided him with the cue for dealing with many other themes. In his letter of defence in
fact di Sangro expresses a pantheistic vision of Nature, the need for free thought, unorthodox theories on the
origin of the world, man and writing, as well as revealing hostility towards the Church’s interference in the
affairs of the Kingdom of Naples. And not only this, as his contemporaries could read between the lines
the innovative ferment of the Freemasons, linking back to the cabalistic tradition, and even
included an esoteric message transmitted through a secret code.
The text was defined as a “receptacle of all heresies”, and in 1752 the Roman Congregation of
the Index included it among its list of prohibited reading. The fascination of this stronghold of
anti-traditional literature is still felt, as is that of the three beautiful tables of “quipu” laid out
in the book, in the deciphering of which past and present readers have searched for access to
the extraordinary mysteries. From a technical viewpoint too his “Lettera Aplogetica” itself
earns our respect as its title page was printed in four colours with a single turn of the
press, thanks to a special printing machine and system known only to the Prince,
since in the eighteenth century they were able to print no more than two colours at a
time. As mentioned at the outset, even wonders such as these fail to equal his real
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masterpiece, namely the Sansevero Chapel for the creation of which he invested both energy and capital for more than twenty years,
summoning renowned painters and sculptors, supervising and directing the various phases of the works in person, selecting and
preparing the materials himself. In this monument of Baroque art which can still be admired today in all its magnificence he infused
all his own personal culture and genius in elaborating its fascinating iconographic design.
Fulcrum of the entire project are the marble statues of the “Virtues”, to be interpreted as the various stages in an initiation process
directed towards knowledge and inner perfection. Right here before the visitor’s eyes are to be admired the veiled charms of the “Pudicia”
or “Modesty” by Antonio Corradini, the virtuosic net of the “Disinganno” or “Disillusionment” by Francesco Queirolo, and further the
“Liberalità”, “Sincerità” and the “Decoro”. Sculptures on this side all brimming with symbols alluding to Masonic ideology, while on
that side to alchemic procedures.
The most admiral work of the Sansevero Chapel is doubtlessly “The Shrouded Christ” created by Giuseppe Sanmartino from a single
block of marble that never fails to enchant and amaze on account of the transparency of its marble shroud. If the inventions once kept in
his residential palazzo are almost all now missing, it is in the Chapel that some examples of his talent may still be appreciated : the
colours of his vault fresco which retain their brilliance thanks to a special formula he devised ; the tempera coloured waxes of which he
was the “first inventor”, used in a fine picture by Giuseppe Pesce; the “Anatomical Machines” which are two skeletons showing the
perfectly preserved arterial-venous system; the labyrinthine flooring, with its unbroken line of white marble that reveals no joining, it too
a prodigy of Raimondo di Sangro’s creativity.
It is here that you may finally read an eloquent inscription on the memorial tablet on his tombstone, which better than anything either
said or written over the centuries clearly outlines the profile of the Prince of Sansevero: “An extraordinary man predisposed to all things
he ventured to undertake. A celebrated investigator of the most recondite mysteries of Nature”.
Sansevero Chapel: Giovan Francesco di Sangro 5th Prince of Sansevero