The Sea and the Difficult Control of its Weak Borders. The Kingdom of Naples during the Health Emergencies in the 17th Century

In the Modern Age the sea was the preferred place for movements of men and goods, but it was also the place through which diseases arrived. And yet, compared to the land route, it was also the place characterized by the weakest borders, which were more difficult to be controlled. In a peninsula, such as the Kingdom of Naples, jutting between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic Sea, control was even more difficult. Here the coasts were broad and generally easy to get to, especially in the case of small boats. These small boats used to move along the coasts in the Adriatic Sea, which is almost a closed but also a very dangerous sea, connecting the Western world to the East, which was dangerous because it was from the East that disastrous epidemics used to come. Along Southern Italian coasts disembarkations occurred easily. However, there were attempts to limit them for health and tax reasons. Specific viceroyal laws established the allowed landing points for every boat, and controls on the origin of crews, passengers and goods were strict. Meanwhile, all the points on the coasts were somehow controlled both by land, thanks to towers and men observing the coast, and by sea through small patrol boats. Nevertheless, de facto smuggling and illegal landings outside the allowed ports were a common practice. And for this reason they were very dangerous from the health point of view. So it is no coincidence that in the 17th century both of the plague epidemics which hit the Kingdom of Naples came from the sea. In this paper I analyze how the Kingdom of Naples controlled the possible maritime landings, the difficulties the government authorities dealt with in controlling the coasts, and the special measures they adopted, if any, in emergency situations such as the two epidemics that occurred in the 17th century. A picture will emerge where the sea, the main vector of epidemics, was also the place where the control, albeit strict in theory, proved to be less effective than the land one.