This volume of essays offers a series of new insights into the "age of the Enlightenment," not only in Italy but throughout Europe. In its political reforms, intended to attack feudalism and the Church and to modernize the economic and judicial systems, Naples was influenced by European culture. But Naples also exercised a strong influence on European culture: the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the musical culture of the city, had great importance in shaping the modern, enlightened culture of Europe.