Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

In  the  following  pages  I  will  consider  the  existing  comic  fragments  related  to Sappho,  the  poetess  from  Lesbos.2  My  aim  is  to  challenge  the  scholars  who  have claimed  that  Sappho  was  ridiculed  in  the  comic  tradition  for  her  licentiousness,  for her  ugliness,  and  more  generally  for  her  life  and  habits.  I  will  show  that  there  is  no certain  evidence  for  that  in  the  texts  that  survive  and,  on  the  contrary,  that  some elements  indicate  the  opposite,  offering  traits  that  are  in  common  with  some Aristophanic female figures.

According to main studies, Phaon’s figure was somehow connected to the Aphrodite’s cultural sphere: it was thought to be a solar figure related to Adonis and Phaeton who in turn, were likely to be inserted in aphroditic contexts.
This article analyses these statements and provides a general view about this mythic-religious figure on the basis of a consolidated bibliography (especially Kock 1862, Wilamowitz 1913, Stoessl 1938, Nagy 1973, Bažant & Berger-Doer 1994). Following this introduction I concentrate on the relationship between Phaon and the figure of the poetess Sappho, in particular, the well-known tradition about the leap from Leukas’ Cape and the possible presence of Phaon in Sappho’s work.
However, my focus is on the Attic Comedy, in which most scholars see the origin, the development consequent suicide. Here there is the most significant findings of my work: after the examination of the comedy fragments where Phaon’s and/or Sappho’s presence was verified or supposed (20 plays in total) I concluded that in no case are we sure about the compresence of the two characters in the same play. Therefore, the opinion of most part of scholars is due exclusively to Menander’s Leucadia where clearly neither Phaon nor Sappho are characters.
In conclusion, we need to re-evaluate and reassess the importance of Comedy in the development of the story; in my opinion this genre is not the most likely to be the origin of the legend: consequently, I propose other genres and situations, that are more likely to have been involved into this process.

Bachelor's dissertation (it. Lettere Classiche) at the University of Naples Federico II in Greek Literature entitled “La tradizione della Saffo epigrammatica. La ricezione della figura di Saffo nell’epigramma greco” (eng. THE TRADITION OF EPIGRAMMATIC SAPPHO. THE RECEPTION OF SAPPHO’S FIGURE IN GREEK EPIGRAM); supervisor prof. Giulio Massimilla.

Specialization Course in Literary Forms between Ancient and Modern (it. Corso di Perfezionamento in Forme letterarie tra antico e moderno) at the University of Naples Federico II, with a dissertation on an essay I wrote in Classical Philology entitled “Simile a fiori d’oro. Il rapporto madre-figlia in Saffo” (eng. SIMILAR TO GOLDEN FLOWERS. THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP IN SAPPHO); tutor: prof. Giovan Battista D’Alessio.

The complex life of Frederick of Aragon, second-born of Ferdinando I of Naples, is analyzed through a work of decomposition and interpretation of the data that concern to the political, cultural and ideological physiognomy of a character considered marginal in the the dramatic Italian events of the end of the XV century. Frederick represents instead, in his formation and his roles, the extraordinary experiment that was the Aragonese system of government, and the meaning of a whole political civilization: the Renaissance of the specula principis, of the political art,  that can show once more the measure of its inexhaustible originality through the reconstruction of lives as this, transversals, uniques and deeply absorbed in the practice of the power.

The relationship between monarchy and barons represented, since the XVI century, a fundamental theme for the interpretation of the complex political and institutional dynamics concerning the Aragonese Kingdom in Naples. This relationship was especially seen as antithetical, because of the repeated armed conflicts between the Crown and the rebellious barons, but it deserves, according to a renewed historiography, to be still investigated from unedited observation posts. This article focuses on the neapolitan royal princes, occupied in very important institutional roles and at the same time titulars of feuds: Aragonese princes-barons, therefore, through which (and particularly Frederick of Aragon, prince of Taranto and Squillace, whose paradigmatic case is analyzed more widely) the Crown experiments an overcoming of the antithesis, extending its own political praxis and its own ideology of the power in the provincial territories, as well as spreading and defending its own ideal model of a Neapolitan baron.

This article examines the series Corrispondenza degli ambasciatori fiorentini da Napoli, which is part of Fonti per la Storia di Napoli aragonese and saw its eighth, final volume published in 2015. It features a detailed discussion of this work, as well as observations on the features and research potential of the diplomatic source, and on the institutions and policies in the Kingdom of Naples during the 1484-1494 decade.

Volume pubblicato con il contributo del Comune di Barletta per lo sviluppo del programma scientifico sulla Disfida di Barletta, coordinato dal Centro di Studi su Umanesimo e Rinascimento Aragonese -CESURA nell'ambito delle attività del progetto triennale 2017-2019.