Robin Thomas

Robin Thomas

Robin Thomas (Associate Professor of Art History, Pennsylvania State University) specializes in the architecture of Naples, and his interests include early-modern urbanism; the social function of buildings, music and space; and the intellectual formation of the architect. His book, Architecture and Statecraft: Charles of Bourbon’s Naples 1734–59 (Penn State Press, 2013), examined the remaking of Naples under King Charles of Bourbon (1734–59), and addressed the political, social, economic, and cultural importance of the royal building program. His other publications include translations of philosophical texts by Giambattista Vico, an article on the Duca di Noja map of Naples in Giambattista Nolli, Rome and Mapping: Before and After the Pianta Grande (2014), another on the architect Luigi Vanvitelli as reader and author in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2010), a third on the Teatro di San Carlo in The Court Historian (2012), and an essay on architects’ libraries in A Companion to Architecture in the Age of Enlightenment (2017). Current projects include a study of slavery and building practice in Naples and a book-length examination of the cultural, political, and economic dimension of royal palaces at Capodimonte, Portici, and Caserta. http://www.arthistory.psu.edu/robin-thomas