Domenico Santoro

Domenico Santoro (died after 1688) was a local historian and physician closely related to the city of Altamura, Kingdom of Naples. He's known mostly for his essay "Description of the city of Altamura" (Italian: Descrizione della città di Altamura, 1688),which was the first complete essay on the history of Altamura, Kingdom of Naples (Italy).

Domenico Santoro
Died	after 1688
Nationality	Kingdom of Naples
Occupation	physician, historian
Known for	a short essay on the history of the city of Altamura, Italy

In his work, the author provides precious information on the history and the life of Altamura, perhaps drawing from documents now lost. The work has also been copied by priest D. Vitangelo Frizzale. The clearest limit of his work is perhaps the absence of critical analysis of the socurces, and the commingling of history and legendary facts, as Ottavio Serena later pointed out.[1]

Life

There is very little or no information on his life. Local historian Tommaso Berloco claimed that he may have been a jurist and that he belonged to a noble family living in Altamura, which originated in Caserta.[2] According to more recent research, it was a physician (then called dottor fisico).[3] His only work - Descrizione della città di Altamura (1688) - provided plenty of information about the history of the city of Altamura. A street in Altamura has been named after him.

Cesare Orlandi, in his work Delle Città d'Italia (1770)[4] mentions Giovanni Donato, which was also a jurist from Altamura and he was more famous than him.[5] Local historian Tommaso Berloco suggested that Orlandi mentioned Donato in order to thank him for the source, and he suggested that Giovanni Donato may have used pseudonym "Domenico Santoro". Another hypothesis is that Giovanni Donato was a relative of Domenico Santoro's.[5]

The original edition of his work, as well as the following, went lost. The manuscript which survived dates back to the XIX century or the early years of the XX century. Even though the manuscript is a faithful reproduction of his original work, it contains a few copying mstakes and parts added by other writers.[2]

Works

• Santoro, Domenico (1688). Descrizione della città di Altamura. Scribd.com.

References

1. storie-inedite
2. storie-inedite, p. 7
3. "Elena Silvana Saponaro : Di alcuni vasi figurati rinvenuti in Altamura nell'Ottocento nelle relazioni all'Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica di Roma" (PDF). Pugliaindifesa.org. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
4. Orlandi, Cesare (1774). Delle città d'Italia e sue isole adjacenti compendiose notizie (in Italian). Retrieved 2017-08-25.
5. storie-inedite, p. 8

Bibliography

• Berloco, Tommaso (1985). Storie inedite della città di Altamura. ATA - Associazione Turistica Altamurana Pro Loco.