Ideas and Projects for Napoleonic Naples Burial Reform

Abstract

 This article aims to describe the attempts made by Napoleonic administrators in Naples to reforming the urban burials system, paying attention, firstly, on medical theories at the basis of the new cemetery projects, secondarily on people involved in the reform, especially technicians. The article deals also with the origins of the European need for burial reform in 18th century and its following establishment by the Napoleonic laws, through an hard compromise between traditional practices and hygienic principles.