Writing of Cities in Renaissance Southern Italy: Local History, Antiquarianism, and Classical Sources

Systematic study of humanistic literature in Latin (15th-16th centuries) related to the cities of the Kingdom of Naples (except Naples itself): contexts, genres, networks of relationships, use of classical sources, antiquarian interests, etc. The innovative picture that emerges from the analysis is that a very significant number of centers (some today minor, but flourishing at the time) promoted literary, chorographic and antiquarian production aimed at celebrating and promoting cities in relation to the capital and other centers. The humanists involved in this production are high-profile personalities of Italian humanism (Lorenzo Valla, Biondo Flavio, Antonio Galateo), but also authors of lesser fame, many of them to be rediscovered (Ambrogio Leone, Francesco Peto, Francesco Patrizi, Elisio Calenzio, etc.). The paper has no specific precedent, and constitutes the result of five years of work within the ERC project HistAntArtSI of which the volume is a product.