The Neapolitan Mastiff or Mastino Napoletano is an Italian breed of a large dog. It descends from the traditional guard dogs of central Italy. It was recognised as a breed by the Ente Nazionale Della Cinofilia Italiana in 1949 and accepted by the FCI in 1956. The breed is closely related to the Cane Corso.

History

The Neapolitan Mastiff derives from the traditional catch and guard dogs of central Italy. Selection of the breed was begun in 1947 by Piero Scanziani, who had seen one at an exhibition in Naples in 1946. He drew up the first standard for the breed, which in 1949 was officially recognised by the Ente Nazionale Della Cinofilia Italiana.

Molosso Italiano

Large similar dogs have been present in Italy for centuries, observed mainly in artistic representations and quotes. At the beginning of the 20th century, this type of dog or landrace was not as well known in their country as before and was presented at a dog show for the first time in 1914 surprising Fabio Caielli the show’s judge. Caielli and the dog’s owner Mario Monti travelled around Italy looking for dogs of the same type to form a breed.

Piero Scanziani was a writer fascinated by dogs and found this blue brindle Italian dog in a dog show in the 1940s. It was a type of dog that he believed to be the legendary extinct Molossus quoted by Columella and other writers. They were the same type of dog recovered by Caielli and Monti but they were not yet numerous. Scanziani started breeding the breed and calling it Molosso or Molosso Italiano. Guaglione was the first dog acquired by Scanziani and was the patriarch of the Molosso. Scanziani wrote about the Molosso publicizing the breed and enabling its formalization and recognition by the Italian Kennel Club in the same decade. The first breed standard cited the names Cane Corso, and mastino and cane da presa as synonyms to the Molosso. In subsequent years the new breed adopted only the Mastino Napoletano name and acquired different physical traits through the decades that separated it from its old synonyms.

Cane da presa and Cane Corso

Until the middle of the 20th century, as already mentioned, the names Cane Corso and Cane da Presa and Mastino were just synonyms for the same type of dog formally called Molosso Italiano. Through the decades the name Mastino Napoletano was adopted and the breed became physically different from its predecessors. Certain enthusiasts such as Paolo Breber rediscovered dogs in the 1970s that were more similar to the previous Molosso and turned this into a breed today called Cane Corso, which today is also a little different from its beginnings. In the 21st century, other enthusiasts were not satisfied with the Neapolitan Mastiff or the Cane Corso, and are reportedly trying to restore Molosso Italiano. The project is called Cane da Presa Meridionale (“Southern Catch Dog”) and is supposedly focused on breeding healthy and functional dogs that represent the 1950s Mastino breed standard.