Giuseppe Cirillo
Tenured professor of Modern History (M/STO-02) at the J. Monnet Political Science
Faculty of the Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania
His is director of the COSME (Southern European Observatory). With its offices at the
Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, this research centre works under conventions with
a number of other Italian (the University of Milan, University of Salerno) and European
Universities: The Sorbonne (Paris 1), The Independent University of Madrid and the
University of Magonza. The COSME has also established conventions with the Italian
Ministry of the Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism (MIBACT) and with the equivalent
ministries in France and Spain.
He is coordinator of a European level research project (involving Italian, French and
Spanish researchers from various disciplines) on the digitalisation, publication on-line and
semantic research of the great European digital and “paper” archives on the Bourbons of
Europe. The project is financed by Por-Fers Horizon 2020 funding, and has produced
prototypes for semantic research on grand historical archives both in Italy and the rest of
Europe.
He is European manager of the technology platform constructed by the COSME
(laboratories, server rooms, equipment) for testing technological prototypes (semantic
research on documents, georeferencing, storytelling construction) for the European
Cultural Heritage ministries.
In Italy he is coordinator of a number of MIBACT projects on the recovery, inventorying,
digitalisation, network publication and semantic research on grand historical archives.
He is Manager of the MIBACT series “Alle Origini di Minerva Trionfante”.
He is scientific manager of the European Series “Documenti-monumenti dell’identità
europea”, born from a convention between MIBACT, the University of Magonza, the
Independent University of Madrid and the Sorbonne (Paris 1).
He is science manager of the MIBACT project “Le Regioni italiane. Un profilo per i Beni Ciulturali”.
He has directed the following competitive projects:
a) “ANGUANA. The Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park Identity”, financed by IMONT
(Istituto Nazionale della Montagna-Mountains National Institute), by MIUR, by UNCEM
(Unione Nazionale Comuni,Comunità ed Enti Montani-The National Union of Mountain
Towns and Communities) and by the University of Salerno (COAM) (2006-2007);
b) “Proto-industry in the areas of Campania and Southern Italy: mapping and promoting
areas of industrial archaeology”, financed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism
and by the Region of Campania as well as by the Università di Salerno (COAM) (2007-
2008);
c) “Proto-industry Areas and Forms in the Mezzogiorno in the Modern Era (16th-19th
century), financed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism and the Region of
Campania (2008-2009);
d) POR-FERS Campania, 2007-2013, Promoting the “San Leucio fund” in the Archive of
the Royal Administration of the State of Caserta in the Royal Palace of Caserta, financed
by the Region of Campania in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and
Tourism (2011-2016).
In addition to his skills in valorising grand European historical archives, he studies the
institutional and economic politics of the Bourbon states. On the construction of the
modern state during the Bourbon period, examined in a comparative sense between Spain
and the Kingdom of Naples, he has dedicated a number of monographies (G. Cirillo, Spazi
contesi. Camera della Sommaria, baronaggio, città e costruzione dell’apparato territoriale
del Regno di Napoli (sec. XV-XVIII), vol. I, Università e feudi, Guerini, Milan 2011; Idem,
vol. II, Evoluzione del sistema amministrativo e governi cittadini, Guerini, Milan 2011; G.
Cirillo, Virtù cavalleresca ed antichità di lignaggio. La Real Camera di S. Chiara e le nobiltà
del Regno di Napoli nell'età moderna, MIBACT, Rome 2012; I. Ascione-G. Cirillo.G. M.
Piccinelli (by), Alle origini di Minerva trionfante. Caserta e l’utopia di S. Leucio. La
costruzione dei siti reali borbonici, Ministry of the Cultural Heritage, Rome 2012.); another
lie of his research looked into the borth and evolution of proto-industry in the Kingdom of
Naples.
Since 2008 he has been leading a group of Italian and European scholars researching the
Bourbons of Spain, France and Naples: political languages, royal estates, palaces, courts,
ceremony and ritual.
On this subject, through the valorisation of a number of significant primary archives, a
number of significant monographies have been produced (G. Cirillo, Emblems of Power in
Bourbon Europe. Semantic Search Paths on Historical Archives, MIBACT, Roma 2018;
The Europe of “decentralised courts”. Palaces and royal sites: the construction of the
political image of the Bourbons: Italy, Spain, France,by Giuseppe Cirillo, “Cheiron” n. 2
(2017); G. Cirillo (ed.), The Modern State in Naples and Bourbon Europe: historiography
and sources, International Conference Caserta – December, Monday 5th-Tuesday 6th,
MIBACT (currently being printed).