Alfonso il Magnanimo: Il re Rinascimento che fece di Napoli la capitale del Mediterraneo. Giuseppe Caridi. Profili 81. Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2019. 376 pp. €25

Given the restrictions of this series, the reader will find no discussion of sources or methodology, little analysis of Alfonso's intellectual and artistic patronage, and scant discussion of his religious life and values, of his attempts to radically transform Naples's urban plan, or of wider social and economic trends. While the author makes ample and skilled use of primary sources—including Iberian ones and diplomatic correspondence—his account is both limited by this adherence to narrative history and lacking in a broader use of other types of work, such as the urban chroniclers most recently analyzed by Senatore, Montuori, De Caprio, and others, which might have broadened his account with a variety of polarities and perspectives. While his narrative reinforces claims that Alfonso's long-term goal was to incorporate the Regno into a realm that would include all the Western Mediterranean and then dominate Italy, Caridi agrees with Galasso's arguments that the king sought balance, not hegemony.