Tomaso Maria Napoli : a Dominican Prior’s contribution to military architecture in the Baroque age

Abstract

Professor Denis De Lucca’s pioneering research work over the past number of years has served to challenge the notion that the design of fortifications, particularly during the age of Baroque, was restricted solely to military circles. His seminal work on the role of the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits, in spreading knowledge about fortifications and military architecture, entitled ‘Jesuits and Fortifications: The Contribution of the Jesuits to Military Architecture in the Baroque Age’ and published by Brill in 2012, however, drew attention to the manner in which a very influential religious institution used its educational faculties to teach the subject of fortification to the nobles of Europe while its learned members published treatises on fortification theory and even provided consultancies on the subject to warring princes.