California Italian Studies

This short essay deals with the literary treatment of the site and image of Naples in Giovanni Boccaccio’s early works. The idealized construction of the city as an area where life is peaceful according to the rules of courtesy is part of a cultural strategy the young writer conceives in order to authorize himself. Just as Virgil found in ancient Partenope his tomb, just as the poet Ovid is associated with Sulmona, and Petrarch with Arquà, Boccaccio presents Neapolitan landscape and topography as the framework for his personal (auto-)portrait as a literary author.