Kingdom of Naples

State · 1285–1805 CE · at its largest around 1762 CE

Southern Italian kingdom formed from the mainland part of the Kingdom of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers, ruled first by the Angevins and later by the Aragonese.

On its lands while it lasted

Rabban Bar Sauma’s journey from Beijing to Europe (c. 1275–1288 CE): A Church of the East monk born near Khanbaliq, Bar Sauma set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was later sent by the Ilkhan Arghun as envoy to Constantinople, Rome, Paris and Gascony to seek an alliance against the Mamluks.
Ibn Khaldun (1332 CE – 1406 CE): A North African historian and scholar whose Muqaddimah analysed the rise and fall of dynasties, making him a forerunner of sociology and historiography.
Black Death (1346–1353 CE): Bubonic plague pandemic that reached Europe through Mediterranean ports such as Messina in 1347 and killed an estimated third to half of Europe's population.
Pietà (1499 CE): Michelangelo’s marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ, finished around 1499 in Rome when he was in his early twenties. It stands in St Peter’s Basilica and is the only work he signed.
St. Peter's Basilica (1506 CE): Pope Julius II laid the foundation stone of the new basilica in Vatican City in 1506; it was consecrated in 1626. Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini all shaped its design.
Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512 CE): Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512, including the Creation of Adam. It is a cornerstone of High Renaissance art.
The School of Athens (1511 CE): Raphael’s fresco in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura, painted between 1509 and 1511, gathers the philosophers of ancient Greece around Plato and Aristotle. It is a defining work of the High Renaissance.
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (1540 CE): Ignatius of Loyola and his companions founded this Catholic religious order, approved by Pope Paul III in Rome in 1540. The Jesuits became leaders in education and missionary work.
Caravaggio (1571 CE – 1610 CE): Italian painter active mainly in Rome whose dramatic realism and use of chiaroscuro transformed Baroque painting.
Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1599 CE): Caravaggio's Judith cutting off the Assyrian general's head, lit by a sudden glare against the dark: the drama that made his name in Rome. It hangs in the Palazzo Barberini.
The Calling of Saint Matthew (1600 CE): In a dark Roman room a shaft of light falls with Christ’s pointing hand on the tax collector Matthew, counting coins. Caravaggio’s drama of light and shadow changed European painting.