This paper develops the marvelous loci contained in a Marian devotional text as the Zodiaco di Maria, compiled by the Dominican Father Serafino Montorio and published in Naples in 1715. The text employs cultural references to the immaterial culture connected with astronomy as a pretext for weaving the praises of the Virgin. It brings together marvelous narratives related to the significant Marian miraculous effigies of the Kingdom of Naples, organizing them geographically and associating each with one of the Twelve Zodiacal constellations. This metaphorical approach favored in Mariological studies from the 17th century onward, creates a layered text open to multiple interpretations.
The Dominican father proposes a complex text that on the surface magnifies the Name of the Virgin as "venerabile agli angioli, dolcissimo agli uomini e tremendo ai dimoni", while portraying the Madonna's miracles as having "special dominio sopra il regno di Napoli". Thus, the twelve provinces of the Kingdom are assimilated to zodiac signs illuminated by the Mother of God, forming an effective metaphor that serves soteriological purposes from the editor's perspective.
This set of rhetorical devices preserves motifs typical of the Neapolitan cultural context, often referring back to Orphic and Pythagorean intellectual traditions based on the principle: "What is below is equal to what is above, and what is above is equal to what is below". In this way, Father Montorio not only draws geography of Neapolitan devotion but propagates on a deeper reading level a profound association and overlapping of interests shared between the Church and the Kingdom. Here, the Virgin, appropriately honored, becomes a guarantor of the throne-altar alliance that governed local politics from the 17th century until the liberal uprisings within the framework of Realpolitik.