Knowledge of the Italian trapdoor spider fauna started with Costa's 1835 description of the female of Nemesia meridionalis. In order to establish a suitable taxonomic basis for a planned revision of the Italian mainland Nemesia fauna it was felt necessary to revalidate the identity of this species. Because Costa's original specimens appear to be lost, we collected new specimens from Costa's type locality (Camaldoli near Naples). On the basis of this material, and older material from Costa's type locality collected and identified as N. meridionalis by Louis Fage (1917), we redescribe N. meridionalis and present, for the first time, a description of the male of this species.