ISCHIA ALUM AND THE MARQUISES OF THE VASTO (AND OF PESCARA)*
From the end of the fifteenth century to the first decades of the sixteenth century, the alum mine of Ischia was in concession to members of the Neapolitan d'Avalos family, of Spanish origin. Some information can be obtained from an inventory of their archive in Naples, but the references are poor and conflicting: on the other hand it is not yet possible to directly consult the documents, which have recently passed to the State Archives. However, the consultation of Chronicles of the 16th century, and a few other documents reported by more recent authors, allows us to trace a general history, and to correct the little and wrong informations published on the subject.
In fact it is generally believed, and it is written, that the mines belonged to the d'Avalos marquises of Pescara and Vasto, but before 1525 the two titles were separate and they were due to different members of the family. The mine had been granted to Innico (II) d'Avalos, Marquis of the Vasto and when he died, in 1503, was inherited, together with the title, by his son Alfonso (III) born one or two years earlier, and was managed by his aunt and tutor Costanza d'Avalos older sister of Innico. Costanza is famous for having given rise to a cultural cenacle, in Ischia, together with Vittoria Colonna wife of Francesco Ferdinando d'Avalos Marquis of Pescara, cousin of Alfonso, but also some warlike enterprises are attributed to her, without any foundation.
When he came of age, in 1516 Alfonso obtained the renewal of the concession from Charles V, but he had to face a trial for the taxes imposed by the Spanish government of Naples.
(*) The whole article is in the Italian correspondig page