Poetry and Identity in Quattrocento Naples

Poetry and Identity in Quattrocento Naples approaches poems as acts of cultural identity and investigates how a group of authors used poetry to develop a poetic style, while also displaying their position toward the culture of others. Starting from an analysis of Giovanni Pontanos Parthenopeus and De amore coniugali, followed by a discussion of Jacopo Sannazaros Arcadia, Matteo Soranzo links the genesis and themes of these texts to the social, political and intellectual vicissitudes of Naples under the domination of Kings Alfonso and Ferrante. Delving further into Pontanos literary and astrological production, Soranzo illustrates the consolidation and eventual dispersion of this authors legacy by looking at the symbolic value attached to his masterpiece Urania, and at the genesis of Sannazaros De partu Virginis. Poetic works written in neo-Latin and the vernacular during the Aragonese domination, in this way, are examined not only as literary texts, but also as the building blocks of their authors careers. See more