When Italy entered World War II in 1940, it was decided to move the most valuable documents in the State Archives of Naples to the Montesano Villa near San Paolo Belsito. The historian Riccardo Filangieri, superintendent of the archives from 1934 to 1956, supervised the transfer of 30,000 volumes and 50,000 parchments in 866 cases. The less valuable contents were left in Naples.Riccardo Filangieri, "Report on the Destruction by the Germans, September 30, 1943, of the Depository of Priceless Historical Records of the Naples State Archives", The American Archivist, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1944), pp. 252–55.
