State Archives of Naples

With its more than 50,000 linear meters of book and document shelving,[1] is of fundamental importance for the history of southern Italy from the 10th century to today.

When Italy entered World War II in 1940, it was decided to move the most valuable documents in the State Archives of Naples to the Montesano Villa near San Paolo Belsito.

The Montesano Villa was visited by German soldiers the following day, and on 30 September they burned it to the ground, having given only fifteen minutes' warning.

[2] Among the documents lost were the Catalogus Baronum, the 378 chancery registers of the Angevin dynasty (1265–1435), the chancery registers of the House of Barcelona in Sicily, the original treaties of the Kingdom of Naples, the greater part of the archives of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and part of the archives of the Order of Malta.

[2] Filangieri devoted the entire final part of his life to reconstructing, from various incomplete sources, the contents of the wealth of documents that had been destroyed, editing the first volumes of the Registri della Cancelleria Angioina published by the Accademia Pontaniana.