Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi

This study examines the various links between the Neapolitan Accademia Pontaniana and the d’Avalos-Colonna literary gatherings on the island of Ischia, arguing that the former figured as intellectual ancestor of the latter. The two informal groups shared a common geographical context—the bay of Naples—as well as striking similarities between their leading figures, Giovanni Pontano and Vittoria Colonna. This analysis is based mainly on literary sources such as Girolamo Britonio’s Gelosia del Sole and Paolo Giovio’s Dialogus de viris et foeminus aetate nostra florentibus, which make reference to both explicit and subtle connections between the Ischian cenacolo—often referred to in terms of Parnassus—and its inspirational father figure, the original Accademia Pontaniana.

Giovanni Pontano’s library is viewed in this essay as the sum of the various libraries associated with him, either as an individual humanist or as the founder of the humanist circle the Accademia Pontaniana. The essay touches the Neapolitan Aragonese royal library, which played an important role during Pontano’s first years in Naples, and the library of the Convent of San Domenico, which he later frequented. Both served as a place for him to encounter the auctores, his main source of inspiration. It focuses on his private library, which not only allowed him to deepen his level of encounter with the auctores but also permitted him to expand his horizons in the area that interested him most, astrology. The essay also examines the library of the Roman humanist Angelo Colocci, viewing it as a reflection of the actual activity of the Accademia Pontaniana.

In The Accademia Pontaniana: A Model of a Humanist Network Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi explores the intellectual networks which developed around the fifteenth century humanist Pontano. She applies recent sociological theory to investigate links between the various Italian humanist circles.

In The Accademia Pontaniana: A Model of a Humanist Network Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi explores the intellectual networks which developed around the fifteenth century humanist Pontano. She applies recent sociological theory to investigate links between the various Italian humanist circles.

Giovanni Pontano’s library is viewed in this essay as the sum of the various libraries associated with him, either as an individual humanist or as the founder of the humanist circle the Accademia Pontaniana. The essay touches the Neapolitan Aragonese royal library, which played an important role during Pontano’s first years in Naples, and the library of the Convent of San Domenico, which he later frequented. Both served as a place for him to encounter the auctores, his main source of inspiration. It focuses on his private library, which not only allowed him to deepen his level of encounter with the auctores but also permitted him to expand his horizons in the area that interested him most, astrology. The essay also examines the library of the Roman humanist Angelo Colocci, viewing it as a reflection of the actual activity of the Accademia Pontaniana.

for political power — the aristocracies, the cities, and the Church — had finally been subjugated. At about the same time came the “definitive assertion . . . that the moderns might know more or be better than the ancients” (139) and the first attempts “to rehabilitate the Middle Ages” (157). Of the many transformations that mark the end of the Renaissance, the two most significant are the “revolution in attitudes toward war and the supernatural” (161). Accordingly, by approximately 1700, society “had shaken off the reverence for antiquity; it had raised doubts about the glory of war; it had limited the authority of the supernatural; and it had resolved difficult struggles over centralized political authority and the role of the Church” (208). In the next two centuries (ca. 1700–ca. 1900), Europe would be engulfed in a “wave of Revolution”: namely, of political, industrial, communicative, social, cultural, and global relations. Rabb intends this book to serve, first, “not as a summa...

This study examines the various links between the Neapolitan Accademia Pontaniana and the d’Avalos-Colonna literary gatherings on the island of Ischia, arguing that the former figured as intellectual ancestor of the latter. The two informal groups shared a common geographical context—the bay of Naples—as well as striking similarities between their leading figures, Giovanni Pontano and Vittoria Colonna. This analysis is based mainly on literary sources such as Girolamo Britonio’s Gelosia del Sole and Paolo Giovio’s Dialogus de viris et foeminus aetate nostra florentibus, which make reference to both explicit and subtle connections between the Ischian cenacolo—often referred to in terms of Parnassus—and its inspirational father figure, the original Accademia Pontaniana.

Pontano’s library is viewed in this study as the sum of the various libraries associated with him, either as an individual humanist or as the founder of the humanist circle – the Accademia Pontaniana. The study touches the Neapolitan Aragonese royal library which played an important role during his first years in Naples, and the library of the Convent of San Domenico, which he frequented at a later stage. Both served for him as a place of encounter with the Auctores, his main sources of inspiration. It focuses on his private library, which not only allowed him to deepen his level of encounter with the Auctores but also permitted him to expand his horizons in the area which interested him most, astrology. On the other hand the study examines the library of the Roman humanist Angelo Colocci, viewing it as the actual reflection of the actual activity of the Accademia Pontaniana.

Scholarship on sixteenth century academies has been primarily interested in the innovative aspects of these academies, while tending to ignore the strong links which exist between them and previous fifteenth century academies. On this line we find the following assessment regarding Garcilaso de la Vega’s writing  and its relationship to that of Chariteo (Benedetto Gareth) – both coming from Spain and integrating into the Accademia Pontaniana , yet in different stages - “Gli ideali artistici di Garcilaso erano gli stessi dei suoi amici napoletani e in genere dei lirici Italiani del tempo. Essi andavano in direzione opposta al classicismo umanistico di Cariteo…” (Giovanni Parenti, p.144). 
This paper presents a different point of view and shows parallel aspects of both Spanish poets, Chariteo and Garcilaso, through an examination of their poetry, side by side with an investigation of the larger picture, the vertical chain that connects between the various stages of the Accademia Pontaniana.  The exposition begins with the stages during the lifetime of Pontano delineated by Galateo (Antonio de Ferrariis), and continue to the various Post –Pontaniano  stages: that which focuses on publishing Pontano, the return to the Socratic discussion. Notwithstanding the tendency of secondary sources to describe the post-Pontano Accademia Pontaniana with reference to a central figure who leads the academy, I argue that we are speaking of the beginning of a break-down of the initial structure: as is the general case in the intellectual life in sixteenth century Italy, the ‘Remaining Accademia Pontaniana’ finds itself in transition, from the single centrist model focused strictly around one charismatic figure to an alternative model composed of a variety of locations as well as of figures, all unified by common the memory of Pontano.
The paper focuses on the Catullan ideal of friendship, central both to Pontano’s life as well as to his writings, which can be viewed as a common ideal which infiltrates throughout the various stages of the Accademia Pontaniana, and which is evident in Garcillaso’s poetry.