title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On the other hand, the Prince of Taranto, who as Grand Constable of the kingdom controlled the entire army, recruited commanders who depended on him and bribed them to embrace his cause. While trying to suppress the first revolts in Apulia and Abruzzo, Ferrante received the notice that the Duke John with twenty-two galleys and four large ships had appeared in the marina di Sessa, between the mouth of the Garigliano and the Volturno. The Duke John was received by the Prince of Rossano and immediately pushed his army to the port of Naples, invading a large part of Terra di Lavoro. He then went to Capitanata where he found the Barons and the Peoples on his side: Lucera immediately opened the doors to him and Luigi Minutolo gave him back the Castle, so did Troia, Foggia, San Severo, Manfredonia and all the Castles of Mount Gargano. Ercole d'Este, who had been made Governor of the Capitanata by Ferrante, seeing all the lands of his jurisdiction rebel, at the behest of his brother Borso went to serve the duke. The Duke of Melfi, the Count of Avellino, the Count of Buccino, the Lord of Torremaggiore and the Lord of Santobuono all passed into the pay of john. The Prince of Taranto who was in Bari went as far as Bitonto to meet the duke and took him to Bari, where he was received with a royal apparatus.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In the meantime, Marino Marzano was trying to assassinate the king through traps and betrayals. The most important attack was the Torricella bite: Marino Marzano deceived the Catalan Gregorio Coreglia, who had been Ferrante's tutor, confiding in him that he wanted to make peace with the sovereign and ask for his grace. Having reported this message to the king, it was decided that the two should meet in a small church located in the place called Torricella near Teano on 29 May 1460 and it was set as a condition that each could bring two companions. Therefore, Ferrante brought with him Coreglia himself and Giovanni Ventimiglia, Count of Montesarchio, who, with a past as a man of arms, over the years, was among the advisors of Ferrante, while Marino was accompanied by two leaders of the time: Deifobo dell'Anguillara, who at the head of an army had in previously forced Ferrante's troops to retreat from Venafro to Calvi, and Giacomo da Montagano, known in the chronicles as a very dangerous and ready-handed man, who had dropped into Terra di Lavoro on Christmas Eve to join the army of John of Anjou.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: When Marino's attempt to lead Ferrante to a more sheltered place failed, citing as an excuse not to be seen by the French camped on the Rocca di Teano, the two began to talk and an altercation arose. Deifobo stating that he too wanted to reconcile with the sovereign moved to meet him to attack him, however Ferrante, seeing the dagger that he was hiding in his hand, drew his sword and faced the two conspirators alone, as the count and Coreglia were held at bay from Montagano. The King got the better of them and before his troops arrived he managed to wound them and put them to flight. In the excitement of the battle, the dagger that had fallen from Anguillara's hand was picked up by a soldier of Ferrante and it was discovered that he was poisoned, since, having touched a dog, he instantly fell dead. This event was then represented in the first, top left, of the six bas-reliefs impressed on the bronze door after the Arc de Triomphe in Castel Nuovo.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The whole Principato Citra, Basilicata and Calabria up to Cosenza raised the Angevin flags and the rest of Calabria was rebelled by the Marquis of Crotone. It is said that at that point Queen Isabella of Chiaramonte, wife of Ferrante, seeing her desperate husband, disguised as a monk with her confessor, went to visit her uncle Prince of Taranto and begged him to keep her queen as he once had her, so much so that the prince moved away from hostilities.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: John managed to reach the walls of Naples and would have even entered if the prudence of Queen Isabella, who had the whole city armed in the absence of her husband, had not prevented him from entering.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante was initially defeated by the Angevins and the rebel barons in the battle of Sarno on 7 July 1460 . On that occasion he was saved by the intervention of military troops, "provisioned" and "conscripts", of the city of Cava de' Tirreni headed by the captains Giosuè and Marino Longo: these, arrived in Foce di Sarno, descended from the mountain and attacked the Angevins who, surprised and unable to determine the extent of the attack, were forced to retreat, giving King Ferrante the possibility of opening up through Nola, the escape to Naples.. Fortunately for him that battle did not have a decisive outcome, indeed the sovereign obtained further aid from the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Duke of Milan entered the war in aid of Ferrante also for fear of the claims that the Duke of Orleans had on the State of Milan.Therefore he sent his brother Alessandro Sforza and Roberto Sanseverino Count of Caiazzo, who was the son of his sister, to the king; both to advise him and to foster a reconciliation between the king and the barons. The arrival of the Count of Caiazzo greatly raised the fate of the war, because being a relative of the Count of Marsico and San Severino, he negotiated with him to return loyal to the king, managing in the end to convince him. The count gladly accepted the privileges that the king offered him, including the concession of the city of Salernowith the title of Prince and to be able to mint coins and many others. The Count of Marsico, who from that moment was called Prince of Salerno, immediately sent a messenger to Pope Pius II for the acquittal of the oath he had made to Duke John when he made him his Knight. From this episode many other barons followed his example, rejecting the Ordre du Croissant of which John had honored them as Knights. Pope Pius II, with the bull of January 5, 1460, absolved from the oath all those who had taken the Ordre du Croissant from John and undid this Confraternity. The agreement between the Prince of Salerno and the King overturned the war in favor of Ferrante, because it opened the way for him to reconquer Calabria, since the lands of the Prince of Salerno from San Severino to Calabria belonged to him or to the Count of Capaccio or to the Count of Lauria and to other followers of his lineage. The prince of Salerno then went with Roberto Orsini to conquer it. He managed to take Cosenza, which was sacked, Scigliano, Martorano, Nicastro, Bisignano and in a short time almost the whole province returned to the king.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Meanwhile, Pope Pius II sent his nephew Antonio Piccolomini to help the king with 1000 horses and 500 foot soldiers, managing to reconquer the Terra di Lavoro. At the same time the Duke of Milan sent a new aid, with which he managed to reconquer many lands in Abruzzo. In the meantime, the king went to Lucera in Apulia, where Duke John lived, who with a large army was waiting for the Prince of Taranto. Many cities surrendered to Ferrante, such as San Severo, Dragonara, many lands of Mount Gargano and finally Sant'Angelo. The king went down to the underground church of that famous sanctuary; he found a great deal of silver and gold, not only what had been donated for the great devotion to the sanctuary; but also what had been brought by priests from the nearby lands. Having noted it, he took it, promising after the victory to return everything; and with that silver he immediately had that coin called "Li Coronati di S. Angelo" struck, which benefited him a lot in this war.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Gjergj Kastrioti, nicknamed Skanderbeg, came to help King Ferrante from Albania with numerous ships, 700 horses and 1000 veteran infantrymen, a very famous man at that time for his campaigns against the Turks of Mohammed II, who reciprocated the help of Alfonso the Magnanimous who years earlier, when the Turks had attacked him in Albania where he ruled, had rescued him. His coming was so effective that he made his enemies wary of attacking him.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante went to meet Skanderbeg, welcomed him in celebration and for several days gave him a grateful rest in Bari. The Skanderbeg then had his soldiers gathered and raised their spirits by inspiring him with gratitude for the Aragonese and rekindling in them the love of glory.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Jacopo Piccinino, who commanded the allied army, observing the discomfort of her, demanded and obtained a truce and because foresaw an unhappy end, he decided not to maintain the truce. The Skanderbeg, having known this, told him that the next day he would engage him in battle and Skanderbeg, having arrived in Bari, joined Ferrante who had set up his camp in Orsara, in Apulia. The following day they came to arms and the Albania, animated by the example of their leader and the King, fully defeated the enemy army and Piccinino and john of Anjou they were forced to flee. In this battle, four thousand enemies fell and a thousand others remained prisoners with twenty-five flags and the victors, rich in the spoils of the vanquished, celebrated the triumph for 8 days. When Ferrante returned to Naples, the inhabitants welcomed him with lively cheers and renewed the sacrament of fidelity.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In the Terra di Bari only Trani remained on the Angevin side, which the ambitious Sicilian Fusianò was appointed by Ferrante to govern it and with the order to defend it. Seeing the kingdom in disorder, he took advantage of it to become master of the city, even starting to extort the inhabitants of the neighboring villages. But the appearance of Skanderbegin the area of Trani was enough for the downfall of such a rogue and he was pardoned by the King, not being punished. Inanto the gratitude that bound him to the Skanderbeg was not silent in Ferrante's heart and, wanting to give him a sign, he gave him to his own and perpetual heritage Trani, Siponto and San Giovanni Rotondo, a city in Puglia and therefore opposite the Albania.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Cardinal Roverella, Apostolic Legate, who was in Benevento, he managed to bring the side of Ferrante Orso Orsini and after this episode even the Marquis of Cotrone and the Count of Nicastro reconciled with the king.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, Ferrante's eldest son, who was less than 14 years old, was sent by his father under the protection of Luca Sanseverino to subdue Calabria.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The king, on the other hand, managed to defeat his enemies in Capitanata, took Troia and entirely subdued that province. Some barons, seeing the defeats of the Angevins, decided to surrender to the king, as did Giovanni Caracciolo, Duke of Melfi, among other things.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The fate of the war turned in Ferrante's favor on 18 August 1462 in Puglia with the battle of Troia, where King Ferrante and Alessandro Sforza inflicted a definitive defeat on their adversaries. After the battle, the ranks of Ferrante's enemies constantly fell apart.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Only the Terra di Lavoro remained to be subdued beyond the Volturno and Abruzzo, where the Duke John had fortified himself. The Prince of Rossano, on the other hand, was at war in Sora, where the Pope's army, urged by Ferrante for the assault, did not want to move, claiming that the Pope had not sent him to help the king as there was none. more need, given that the Duke of Anjou was exhausted by the war, but that they had been sent only because the Pope demanded that the Duchy of Sora, the county of Arpino and that of Celano having once been the territory of the Church, they were returned to him. In order not to get involved in new disputes, he decided to give the county di Celano to Antonio Piccolomini, nephew of the Pope and his son-in-law with the condition that he recognize the king as supreme lord.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Pope Pius then died, with the same condition he gave the Duchy of Sora to Leonardo della Rovere, nephew of Pope Sixtus . Returning to the war, finally the Prince of Rossano capitulated and through Cardinal Roverella the peace treaty was concluded with some conditions, including a new parental bond: Ferrante had to grant Giambattista Marzano, son of Marino, his own daughter Beatrice, who she was immediately sent to Sessa by her aunt Eleonora as a sign of peace.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Marino was subsequently imprisoned by Ferrante, who had already taken possession of all his fiefdom. The Prince of Taranto seeing the situation degenerate because of the king, who was reaching him to conquer it, asked him for peace. Ferrante did not refuse it and sent Antonello Petruccio, his secretary, with Cardinal Roverella, the Pope's legate to negotiate the conditions of the armistice with the Prince's ambassadors. Among the conditions of the armistice there was that the prince was expelled from Puglia and the Duke John from all his fiefs. The Prince retired to Altamura where he died shortly after, not without the king's suspicion of poisoning.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On November 16, the death of Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo, Prince of Taranto, deprived the Angevin front of its most influential boss and financier. With his death, the original plan of Alfonso V of Aragon to make Taranto the pivotal principality in his and his heirs'hands was realized . The Apulian fiefdom was inherited by his wife Isabella and became a fundamental strength for Ferrante's resources.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In September 1463 Duke John, seeing himself abandoned by his allies, he agreed with the king to go on the island of Ischia. After having subdued Apulia, L'Aquila and Abruzzo, Ferrante was left with nothing but the reconquest of Ischia, the last Angevin bulwark, where the Duke of Anjou had retired, which was defended by the brothers Carlo and Giovanni Toreglia; these with eight galleys infested the gulf of Naples to such an extent that King Ferrante asked for the intervention of his uncle John II of Aragon, who sent him Galzerano Richisens with numerous Catalan galleys. In the spring of 1464 John of Anjou, having seen himself isolated and defeated, left with two galleys for Provence.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: After the Catalan army came, which he was no longer in need of, Ferrante gave a great gift to General Toreglia and sent the army back. When Duke john left the kingdom he left a good memory to some peoples and nobles thanks to his numerous virtues, so many knights followed him to France such as Count Nicola di Campobasso, Giacomo Galeota and Rofallo del Giudice. The Duke John arrived in Provence was called by the Catalans, who had rebelled against King John II of Aragon, event for which Ferrante very rejoiced, as if the Duke John, his father René and the King of Aragon were engaged in waging war with each other would not have constituted a danger to Naples. Meanwhile, the County of Barcelona had rebelled against King John and had called King René to govern him, Ferrante, warned of the war, sent some militias to Catalonia to help his uncle.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: After having triumphed against his enemies and subdued the whole kingdom, Ferrante thought of restoring it from the damage of the seven years of war that had upset him; but first of all through political marriages he tried to keep the kingdom safe and therefore decided to marry his eldest son Alfonso with Ippolita, daughter of the Duke of Milan, the eldest daughter Eleanor with the Duke of Ferrara Ercole d'Este and the younger Beatrice with King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. All these celebrations were interrupted by mourning for the death of Queen Isabella, woman of numerous virtues. She was mourned by everyone and her body was taken to the church of San Pietro Martire, where her sepulcher can still be seen today. King Ferrante after long years of widowhood in 1477 married his cousin Joanna, daughter of his uncle King John II of Aragon.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The end of the rebellion of the barons was followed by twenty years of internal peace which allowed Ferrante to strengthen the state and increase its wealth. The confiscation of the lands of the rebel barons transformed the balance of power between the crown and the nobility of the kingdom. Ferrante, always distrustful of the barons, pushed his subjects to greater economic vigor with the introduction of new measures that effectively allowed the entire population of the kingdom to enjoy greater freedom in daily life. With a law of 1466 he allowed farmers to freely dispose of their products, releasing them from the obligation of having to sell the food to the local lord at the price he set.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: State-owned cities gained increasing importance as it imposed greater controls on baronial power. In the kingdom the Jews protected by King Ferrante carried out a notable artisanal and commercial activity. It was an important moment for municipal freedoms. The king himself granted statutes to state-owned cities and ratified those granted by the barons, favoring the growth of an urban aristocracy as a counterweight to the feudal nobility.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Furthermore, in 1466, in order to prevent the abandonment of the lands with its inevitable consequences, harmful to the tax authorities and to the well-being of the country, he ordered that the privileged classes, used to hoard them, could no obstacle to the free sale of the fruits of the earth. prices set at their discretion; in 1469, while confirming ecclesiastical immunities, he left them only to those who actually dedicated themselves to the practices of worship. He tried to reactivate the industries, especially those of silk and wool; and indeed he himself became an industrialist and merchant, associating himself with the daring enterprises of Francesco Coppola, later Count of Sarno.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Nor is the increase and promotion of the fine arts and cultural life less innovative. In fact, in addition to the erected architectures and the impulse given to the university, during his reign a true Italian and Latin culture was formed in the kingdom, which counted among its major representatives the Panormita, the Sannazaro, the Pontano: literature that reflected life of the country, its tendencies, its needs, especially through the works of Diomede Carafa, of Galateo, of Tristano Caracciolo, and, as such, it was destined to survive even in the following centuries.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The death of the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza in 1466, followed later by that of Gjergj Kastrioti, Lord of Albania, deprived Ferrante of his closest friends.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante further strengthened his power with a series of alliances. Around 1463 he promoted a league between the major Italian states: Naples, Florence and Milan. The pacification of the kingdom of Naples had positive effects throughout Italy and the alliance was, as Ernesto Pontieri writes, also beneficial "for the purpose of preserving peace in Italy".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: But the equilibrium achieved with great effort soon proved to be very precarious. The duchy of Milan Galeazzo Maria sforza in March 1470 allied himself with Louis XI of France, effectively invalidating the league with Florence and Naples. Ferrante, then, exploited the weak point of the Sforza power represented by Genoa, fomenting the rebellion of the capital, where in 1476 there were riots and riots to the cry "long live the king of Naples and long live freedom".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On 19 August 1464 Pius II also died, depriving Ferrante of his most faithful ally. The successor, Pope Paul II , recognizing that his predecessor had neglected the collection of the income due to the Church, began to urge Ferrante to pay all the taxes he owed to the Holy See, which had not been paid for several years. Ferrante, aggravated by the excessive expenses for the last war, had run out of money and therefore not only apologized for not being able to pay them, but asked the Pontiff to subscribe to the payment. A discord was generated from this claim that stopped when the Pope asked for help from Ferrante to lower the power of the sons of the counts of Anguillara, who sent him troops.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Once the undertaking was over, the census problem returned to the surface because the Pope returned to request censuses with greater diligence than had been done previously. The King then demanded from the Pope to release the censuses for the expenses he had recently made to help him and also demanded for the future that the income that previously imported, eight thousand oncie a year, should be reduced, since before it was very expensive. elevated for the kingdoms of both Naples and Sicily, but Sicily was a possession of the King john of Aragon, his uncle and not his, so it was not his duty to pay the entire income. The Pope on the other hand emphasized the help that Ferrante had received from his predecessor.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Everyone tried to assert their reasons, but Ferrante put in another claim, namely the restitution of the lands that the Pope owned within the borders of the kingdom, that is Terracina in Terra di Lavoro , Cività Ducale and Leonessa in Abruzzo, near at the borders of the state of the Church; and this in force of the agreement made in 1443 by Pope Eugene IV with his father King Alfonso V. Ferrante also demanded the restitution of Benevento , which he had granted to Pope Pius, his good friend, not wishing that now such an unloving Pontiff would enjoy it. The Pope seeing soured the mood of the King and could not with the army and with other ways to resist him, he immediately sent to Naples on Cardinal Roverella his Tied to appease Ferrante, who angrily ordered to Alfonso his son to remove the Duchy of Sora to the Church. The Cardinal carried out the task so well that from then on there was no more talk of expired censuses, nor of the restitution of those lands. Other disputes arose between them for the defense of the Lords of Tolfa , given that the Popepretending that the city was his, the siege, but the army of the King arrived and the army of the Pope, seeing that of Ferrante, fled immediately, leaving the siege. The disputes that the Kings of Naples had with the Roman Pontiffs were always bitter and continuous not only in Tolfa, but also in the territory of Pozzuoli and Agnano that the Pontiffs claimed belonged to them.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The death of Pope Paul on July 26, 1471, and the succession of Cardinal Francesco della Rovere, who was called Sixtus IV, put an end to all discords, as Pope Sixtus sent Ferrante a Bull in 1475, which reported that for all his vita would not have been obliged to pay the census, but for the investiture to send him a well-trimmed white horse every year; thus the use of the chinea was introduced to Saint Peter. Ferrante, recognizing the virtues of this Pontiff, wanted to pay homage to him by giving the Duchy of Sora (which he had taken from Giovanni Paolo Cantelmo) to Leonardo della Rovere, with whom he then married one of his daughters.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante, therefore, placed himself in a placid calm, marked the same footsteps of King Alfonso his Father and did not neglect in these years of happiness and peace to reorganize the kingdom and enrich it with new arts and provide it with provided laws and institutes, also making at his court men of letters and illustrious in all sorts of sciences and above all professors of civil and canonical law. In his reign, in addition to the splendor of the royal house, letters and writers flourished. In these years Naples had a flourishing golden age similar to the one it was in the reign of Charles II of Anjou for the promotion of art and for the many royals who adorned its palace, in fact Ferrante had numerous offspring like Carlo which increased its prestige. The Royal House of Naples in these times did not have to envy any court of the major princes of Europe, because one day in a feast celebrated in Naples more than fifty people of this royal family appeared, so much so that it was believed that they could never to finish.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In this moment of peace the Turkish danger reappeared with the conquest of the Venetian island of Negroponte by Mohammed II. Venice and Naples immediately undertook unitary actions of the fleets in the Aegean, slowing down the Ottoman expansionism. France and the Duchy of Milan unsuccessfully tried to thwart the alliance, potentially very dangerous for their Mediterranean interests. But it was instead Ferrante's ambition that decreed the end of the alliance, when in 1473 he demanded the possession of the island of Cyprus, protectorate of the Serenissima, proposing in complete secrecy to marry his son Alfonso with a daughter of King James. All this took place with the complicity of Pope Sixtus IV, who did not look favorably on Venetian expansionism in the Aegean.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In the rapid game of alliances and account-alliances that characterized the era, on 2 November 1474 an alliance pact was signed between the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Florence and Venice. Ferrante responded by contrasting the coalition with the State of the Church, stipulated in January 1475 and on the occasion of the Jubilee of that year, Ferrante went to Rome together with some barons of the Kingdom and the trip constituted an opportunity to further strengthen, through the alliance, the links between the Papal State and the Neapolitan kingdom. Thus two antithetical blocs were created, which again threatened peace in Italy. Ferrante, with his diplomacy made up of moves and counter-moves, also forged ties with the Duke of Ferrara and the King of Hungary, who, as mentioned, had married two of his daughters.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Louis XI, meanwhile, in 1475 had taken possession of Anjou, thus securing the Angevin rights to the throne of Naples. Later he proposed the marriage of his niece Anne of Savoy with Frederick, son of Ferrante, but the proposal was accepted only in 1478. In 1476 Galeazzo Maria Sforza died, and Ferrante wanted to take advantage of the occasion by trying, with the support of Pope Sisto IV, to take possession of the Duchy of Milan. Ferrante stirred up the Genoese and the Swiss against Milan to make the duchess regent were to defend itself on two sides. Genoa and Savona rebelled and the Swiss entered Lombardy in November 1478, but Milan knew how to defend itself. Ferrante's plan also failed because he did not obtain the support of the Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, reluctant to meddle in the unstable Italian politics, furthermore this led to the failure of the planned marriage between Frederick, son of Ferrante, and Kunigunde of Habsburg, daughter of the emperor. Sixtus IV himself understood that Ferrante's ambitious plans would end up bringing him into conflict with the other Italian states.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In any case, the Republic of Genoa, thanks to subsidies and the rebellion aroused by Ferrante, escaped the dominion of Sforza, becoming independent and Prospero Adorno was appointed doge of the republic, but after internal discord between Adorni and Fregosi revived by the regency of Milan, Battista Fregoso was elected doge and Adorno was forced to embark in a galley of King Ferrante who was returning to Naples.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Don Ferrante then completely overturned his policy, starting to secretly support the rebels of the Papal States, such as Niccolò Vitelli who fought the pontiff for the possession of Città di Castello. He made arrangements with Mohammed II, who was happy to find an ally against Venice. He entered into trade treaties with Syria, Egypt and Tunisia, which gave a beneficial impetus to the kingdom's trade and maritime traffic.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante was one of the first in Italy to introduce in Naples the printing press, leading to him, in 1470, Arnold of Brussels, Sixtus Riessinger and Iodoco Havenstein, who gave large salaries and large deductibles. Among the books that under his order were printed in Naples, in addition to the Latin classics, also the Commentaries on the first books of the Code of the famous Antonio d'Alessandro, those on medicine by Angelo Catone da Supino, reader of Philosophy, the work by Aniello Arcamone on the Constitutions of the kingdom, the rhymes of fishermen and Italic glory. Among the other Neapolitan books that were printed was also the Arcadia of the famous Sannazaro printed by Pietro Summonte, his dear friend. When Riessinger returned to Rome in 1478, Francesco Del Tuppo became director of the printing house founded by Riessinger and was the most prolific of the publishers and printers active in 15th-century Naples.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante, at the insistence of the King of France Louis XI and driven by the fame of his integrity, had the monk Francis, famous for his holiness, come from Paola. The pious religious left his Calabria and was in Naples in 1481. Welcomed at Porta Nolana, he was received with great honor and courtesy by the King, who had him lodged in the Royal Palace of Castel Nuovo, in a small room that still exists. During this stay the king begged him, before going to France, to found a convent in Naples, making him choose the place to found it. The Saint chose a solitary and rocky place overlooking the sea, asylum for criminals, on the northern slopes of Mount Echia.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Warned not to be deceived in the election of the site, Francis prophesied that this place would be the most important and populated center not only in Naples, but in the whole Kingdom. The Convent was built with next to it, a church dedicated to San Luigi, called the church of San Luigi di Palazzo, for a chapel that existed at the time and dedicated to this saint. During the factory, many alms and a conspicuous donation from the King were received. The saint insistently requested and also obtained that the body of Saint Januarius be transferred to Naples, at which ceremony with great pomp celebrated by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, he too wanted to attend.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Although the Kingdom of Naples was ruled by Ferrante, locally the effective power was the prerogative of the noble families according to what was the feudal system. These barons oppressed the population, which occupied the lowest social level, so Ferrante tried to hinder their power. Francis also fulfilled in this historical context the mission of spreading the Christian life.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Wanting to prove his integrity - as it is said - Ferrante brought the saint to the parts of the current Piazza del Plebiscito and tempted him with a tray full of gold coins offered for the construction of a convent of the Minims in Naples, in the open space that today it is occupied by the colonnade of the Church of San Francesco di Paola. St. Francis refused, took a coin, broke it and let out blood. The blood that came out of the coins was that of the subjects, of the people who suffered the powerful. Faced with a huge supply of money and a proposal of ultimate prosperity and wealth, anyone would be able to be seduced; so it was not for the Saint.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: When the latter then left for France at the invitation of King Louis XI, the Pope and the King of Naples took the opportunity to strengthen the fragile relations with France, foreseeing, in perspective, the possibility of reaching an agreement to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In 1478, at the time of the Pazzi conspiracy , he showed his desire to mediate peacefully, but after the outcome of the conspiracy he sided against Lorenzo de' Medici and declared war on Florence. Ferrante managed to reach an agreement with the Turkish sultan, who unleashed his army against Venice which, forced to defend itself, was unable to rush to Florence to help. The heir to the throne Alfonso, commander of the Neapolitan army, was sent to war in Tuscany, where he managed to be proclaimed lord of Siena. The Florentines had no choice but to come to terms with the king of Naples and an armistice was asked. Lorenzo de' Medici had realized that he could not afford the enmity of a sovereign so powerful and so close: he therefore set off for Naples to deal directly with Ferrante.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On 5 December 1479 Lorenzo the Magnificent embarked on Neapolitan ships in Pisa to reach Naples. All of Italy observed this trip with great interest, awaiting great decisions: the meeting had been well prepared and the welcome to Lorenzo, who arrived in Naples on 18 December 1479, exceeded all expectations. The peace, which was stipulated on March 17, 1480, provided for the alliance between Florence and Naples. When Pope Sixtus IV learned that Milan and the Duke of Ferrara also adhered to the treaty, he thought it best to ally himself with Venice.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The peace was granted although the fate of the arms had been favorable to the Aragonese, and happy circumstances, such as the internal unrest in Milan and the neutrality of Venice, authorized us to consider that as the most opportune moment for Naples to attempt the conquest of an effective dominance over Italy, in any case, the alliance with Florence of Lorenzo de' Medici proved to be advantageous for Ferrante, so much so that in 1483 Ferrante appointed Lorenzo the Magnificent Chamber of the Kingdom. A title more than anything else honorific, for the one who more than any other will prove to be a good ally of the king of Naples. The historian Ernesto Pontieri comments: "Ferrante, found in the league with Florence a bulwark against the enemy forces of his dynasty, which, as is well known, were the treacherous and riotous baronage inside and foreign suitors outside. Both contractors, the Aragonese and the Medici, remained faithful to the pacts agreed in Naples in 1480; and in reality, as long as they lived, no one violated the borders of Italy."


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: However, the daring journey of the Magnificent confirmed the fame that Ferrante enjoyed as Judge of Italy. Furthermore, the magnificence of his court and the wealth of means at his disposal created him the reputation of a very rich sovereign; and finally his flashy diplomatic and war triumphs, his wise financial and administrative reforms, and the considerable aids given to writers and artists were able to give good hopes to the subjects who were favorable to his house.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Meanwhile, Lorenzo and Ferrante were negotiating in Naples, still in 1480, Mohammed II, followed by a powerful fleet, began to threaten the Kingdom of Naples. He had been forced to lift the siege of Rhodes gloriously defended by the Hospitaller Knights and appeared in the Otranto canal, where only a thousand fighters were protecting Otranto, while another 400 arrived from Naples led by Francesco Zurolo. The citizens made a valiant defense more than the soldiers, but against the powerful and numerous Ottoman army their constancy against the perfidious and cruel Gedik was useless, commander of the expedition against Naples which in the end managed to occupy Otranto in less than two months, where most of the population was massacred. Eight hundred citizens of Otranto were exhorted by the Ottomans to abandon the Catholic religion to convert to Islam. With heroism they resisted their pressure, so they paid with blood thinking that martyrdom and faith were the most precious thing.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Having taken the city, Muhammad called Gedik to him, who left his Lieutenant Ariadeno Baglivo of Negroponte with 7000 Turks and 500 horses in the city, and he with 12 Galleys, loaded the resources of the sack of that city and sent them to Constantinople. Ariadeno therefore, wishing to continue the conquests, thought of occupying Brindisi and laying siege to other cities. Ferrante seeing his kingdom in danger, asked for help from all the princes of Europe and immediately sent a messenger to call Alfonso his son in Tuscany, to leave the war against Florence and come to help the kingdom.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Turkish danger was, explicitly, the basis of the royal decision to adequately fortify Brindisi. While the Turks were still barricaded in Otranto, in February 1481, Ferrante d'Aragona ordered the start of work for the construction of a fortress to guard the port of Brindisi: the Ferrante tower. Subsequently, in 1485, Alfonso, son of King Ferrante and then Duke of Calabria, transformed the keep of Ferrante into a castle. Thus was born the superb Aragonese castle of Brindisi.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Duke of Calabria abandoned the war in Tuscany and, having arrived in Naples on 10 September 1480, gathered an army of 80 Galere with some vessels and gave the command to Galeazzo Caracciolo, who arrived with the army in the Strait of Otranto greatly frightened the enemy army. Shortly after, the Duke of Calabria himself joined him, accompanied by a large number of Neapolitan barons. The King of Hungary, brother-in-law of the Duke, sent 1700 soldiers and 300 Hungarian horses and the Pope sent a cardinal with 22 Genoese galleys. The Pope to thwart the danger from which he had threatened the Italy tried to unite the Italian governments in his will to make them act against the invasion of the Turks and absolved the Florentines from excommunication, forgiving them for all the injuries done to the Church; and Ferrante in exchange for 10,000 ducats returned to them all the lands he had conquered during the conflict against Florence (Colle Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Monte San Savino, Poggio Imperiale and other fortified places in the Chianti and Valdelsa).


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Turks, after many battles, were finally forced to retreat into Otranto, where they defended themselves for a long time. The death of Mohammed II and the discord that arose between two of his sons, Cem Sultan and Bayezid, each of whom demanded the empire, prompted Ariaden to understand that the help he was waiting for would come very late, so he decided to surrender to Alfonso and, after having after concluding the peace negotiations, he embarked with the troops and set out for Constantinople.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The young Alfonso, enthusiastic about the success of the enterprise, after having fired the Hungarian soldiers finally returned to Naples, where he was acclaimed by the people and where he found the help that had come from Portugal and Spain, which he sent back. Many famous men of arms died in the war such as: Matteo di Capua, Count of Palena, Giulio Acquaviva, Count of Conversano, Don Diego Cavaniglia and Marino Caracciolo. The bones of the heroic Martyrs of Otranto were then buried by Alfonso with all honors, some of which in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Otranto, later transferred to the Church of Santa Caterina in Formiello, where they are venerated as relics of martyrs.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The praise for the victorious king was equal to the insane terror that had shocked Europe at the news of the Muslim landing in Apulia and Ferrante was hailed as the savior of Italy and Europe.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: When Mohammed II died, a discord began between Bayezid and Zizim over who was to ascend the throne and the latter, through a safe conduct, gave himself into the hands of the Grand Master of Rhodes. Bayezid, eager to have it in his hands, petitioned the Grand Master and the knights to give it to him in exchange for one hundred thousand scudi, but the quibbles sent him first to France and then to Rome to the papal court first to Pope Sixtus IV and then to Pope Innocent VIII. Bayezid was very indignant for this and recruited a mighty army against the knights, which in 1483 passed over Rhodes. Ferrante, having learned that Rhodes was besieged and doubting that the island would not capitulate due to such a great obstacle, recruited a small army of ships and other woods to help it, which army sailed to Rhodes and not only rescued it, but saved it. valiantly from the impulses of enemies. This increased so much praise to the King, so much so that he was appointed curator of the Knights Hospitaller.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In 1482 the Venetians and the Pope allied themselves against the Duke of Ferrara, son-in-law of King Ferrante, because he did not observe the agreements established between them in earlier times. The duke's two adversaries had already managed to occupy almost all the places in the Polesine and plunder the Ferrara countryside. King Ferrante, who for the past war of Otranto found himself tired and impoverished, did not dare to enter the war, but in the end also pushed by the will of the Duke of Calabria, resolved to help his son-in-law and daughter, with the aim also of preventing the Venetians and the Pope from increasing their territories. Then the King wanted to be advised privately and in public and it was suggested that Ferrara had to be defended, since defeated Hercules, the Pope and the Venetians would have done the same thing with him, in fact both claimed the Kingdom of Naples. In addition to the King, the Florentines and Ludovico Sforza, regent of the Duchy of Milan for his nephew Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza took up arms to help Ferrara, with the resolution that the Florentines and the King harass the Pope and Ludovico troubled the borders of the Venetians, so than that Republic, having to defend the borders in many points harassed Ferrara with less impetus.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He then moved the Duke of Calabria with a flowery army in favor of Duke Ercole, but his having denied passage to the March of Ancona by the papal men at arms, turned to plague the lands of the Church and besieged by the favor of the Colonna and Savelli the same city of Rome; but Virginio Orsini, Count of Tagliacozzo and Albe, seeing that Rome was in the thick of things, wanting to show himself religious and loving towards the Papal State, left this enterprise in the pay of the Duke of Calabria and courageously set out to defend the city.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Meanwhile Roberto Malatesta da Rimini, captain of the Venetians, went to help the Pope and the duke withdrew to Velletri, where, forced to go to a place called Campomorto, he was engaged in battle, where the duke's army was defeated. Alfonso managed to escape miraculously thanks to four hundred Janissaries, who remained in the Terra di Otranto under him, who militated, who with great virtue, carried him safely to the walls of Nettuno. The main men-at-arms of his army remained in the power of the enemy, who, entering prisoners in Rome, adorned the triumph of the victor.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: When the Duke of Calabria and the King found themselves in the greatest danger they had ever been, the death of Roberto Malatesta occurred shortly after the victory and the Pope found himself without a captain and therefore unable to continue the war, asked for peace, and leaving the alliance with the Venetians came close to the king, allowing the Duke of Calabria to pass through his territories, who with two thousand horses went to the defense of Ferrara.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Wanting the Pope to allay the discords between the potentates of Italy, he wrote to the Venetians that he had to return everything they had occupied to the Duke of Ferrara, but they refused to do so and despite the Pope having abandoned them, they stubbornly pursued the war, and for more astonished King Ferrante, they called in Italy the Duke of Lorraine, pretender to the throne of Naples by virtue of his ties with the Angevins, hoping that the duke would meet that of Milan who was camped in the countryside of Rome to convince him to ally with the Venetians; but their plan failed because while that war lasted, it was administered by the duke with so much virtue and fortune, that if Ludovico Duke of Milan did not disband from the league, he would have taken away all the mainland from the Venetians.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Meanwhile, Pope Sixtus upon the requisition of King Ferrante excommunicated and banned the Venetians for disturbing the peace of Italy. By this means, the King sent his son Federico with fifty galleys to the sea of Ancona to damage the lands of the Venetians. The following spring the Venetians put into the sea an army of one hundred and twenty woods with troops commanded by the Duke of Lorraine, René II, who occupied Gallipoli, Nardò and Monopoli with resistance.and other smaller places in the Otranto area. The King, deeply afraid of the loss of these places, in order not to receive more damage, asked for peace, which he obtained on 27 August 1484 with the following condition:


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The places that had been occupied in Lombardy by the Duke of Calabria were returned to the Venetians and they released the territories occupied in the duchy of Ferrara, Gallipoli, Nardò and Monopoli with all the lands they had occupied in the Kingdom of Naples.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Ferrante, although a very prudent prince, for the great affection he bore to the Duke Don Alfonso, for his old age and for the love and caresses of his new bride, was disheartened by low affections, and seeing that he trusted a lot in the value of duke gave him almost all the reins of the government.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Alfonso despised the barons, in fact he always used to tell his confidants that if the barons had not been able to help their king in dire need during the war in Otranto, he wanted to teach him how the subjects must behave with their sovereign, assuring him that by oppressing the barons would have favored the people they exploited; and to spread the word of his opposition, Alfonso decided to place a crest broom on the helmet and some pincers in the saddle of the horse, demonstrating that he wanted to annihilate them. All this, combined with Ferrante's centralist government and Alfonso's cruelty towards the barons, led in 1485 to a second attempt at revolt, in fact, the barons, who had conceived a great hatred towards Alfonso, terrified by these threats, began to think how to get rid of it.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Meanwhile Sixtus had died and his successor, Pope Innocent VIII, after having lifted the excommunication of the Venetians that Sisto had given him, wanted to re-establish the payment of the census in the kingdom of Naples. The King on 29 June 1485 (the day set for payment) had sent Antonio d'Alessandro as his orator to Rome to present to the Pope the white horse in effect for the investiture, but the Pope did not want to receive it, so much so that Antonio he was forced to make a public protest. On the other hand, the Barons, seeing the dissatisfaction of the Pope, thought of having recourse to him to be supported. The leaders and authors of this conspiracy were Francesco Coppola, Count of Sarno and Antonello Petrucci secretary of the King. The many riches and the many extraordinary favors that the King did to these two characters made them enter into the hatred and envy of many, especially the Duke of Calabria, who could not contain himself in saying in public that his Father in order to enrich them had impoverished himself.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The barons who conspired were Antonello Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, Pirro Del Balzo, Prince of Altamura, the Prince of Bisignano, the Marquis del Vasto, the Duke of Atri, the Duke of Melfi, the Duke of Nardò, the Count of Lauria, the Count of Mileto, the Count of Nola and many other knights. These, gathered in Melfi for the wedding between Ippolita Sanseverino and Troiano Caracciolo, son of Giovanni Duca di Melfi, sent a messenger to Pope Innocent to ask for help and the Pope gladly accepted the undertaking.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Since both John Duke of Anjou and René his father had died, the Pontiff pushed Charles VIII of France to send René Duke of Lorraine to conquer the kingdom of Naples, of which he would have invested him, as long as he was always faithful to the Holy Church. Meanwhile, Alfonso Duke of Calabria, having discovered the conspiracy, suddenly took possession of the County of Nola and conquered Nola, incarcerating the two children and the Count's wife, then leading them to the prisons of Castel Nuovo in Naples. When the other conspirators learned what Alfonso had done, fearing that he would do the same with their fiefs, they openly began to arm themselves and revolt. In an instant the Kingdom was turned upside down: broken roads, no businesses, closed courts and every place full of confusion.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Ferrante, shaken by these tumults, tried to quell them. The Prince of Bisignano , in order to give the other barons time to arm themselves, began to make a peace treaty with Ferrante who apparently seemed very willing to accept, but in reality he had no intention of giving him anything. The one therefore tried with simulation to deceive the other, the barons proposed to the king very impertinent conditions; but they were all agreed. When they had to be signed, since the prince of Salerno and many barons resided in Salerno , the prince of Bisignano asked the king to send Don Frederick to Salerno for greater safety.and sign them in his name. The King sent Frederick who was received by the Prince and the Barons, who greeted him with signs of esteem. Frederick was a prince endowed with rare and incomparable virtues, handsome, with very sweet behavior, moderate and modest, so much so that he was loved by all and of habits opposed to his brother Duke of Calabria.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Frederick therefore entered Salerno with the firm hope of concluding the peace; but one day the Prince of Salerno, having summoned the barons to his Palace and had Frederick enter the Castle in an eminent room, began with much eloquence to persuade him to take the kingdom they were offering him so that, having chased Alfonso, he would rest under his clemency, and certainly the old King would not have been offended by this, on the contrary he would have favored the will of men and of God. In short, he influenced the prince with great ardor, so much so that each baron believed that Frederick would not refuse the gift; but this prince who had neither ambition, nor immoderate thirst to dominate, but only virtue, after having thanked for the offer, very placidly replied that if by granting him the kingdom he had been under their control, he would have gladly accepted the gift, but Not being able to take possession of the kingdom, if not violating all the laws, the paternal will and the reason of his brother, he refused. When the conspirators understood Frederick's resolution, they turned pale, and seeing that they had to carry out the conspiracy, they imprisoned Frederick and to invigorate the Pope's soul they raised the Papal flags.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante, infuriated by the incident, threatened to declare war on the Pope and sent the Duke of Calabria with a large army to the borders of the kingdom. The Duke of Calabria, before entering the war against the Papal State, declared that he was going not to offend the Holy See, but only to defend himself and free the kingdom from the snares of the rebels and declared that he was and always would be an obedient son of the Pontiff and of the Apostolic See.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante then published a proclamation with which he ordered all the clergy of the kingdom who resided in the Roman Court and had bishops, archbishops and benefits in the kingdom, to present themselves within fifteen days in his presence and to reside in their churches. Not having wanted to obey, the Archbishop of Salerno and the Bishops of Miletus and Teano, who were in Rome, were deprived of their income.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He then gathered another army, of which he gave the command to Ferrandino, prince of Capua, his nephew and eldest son of the Duke of Calabria. To compensate for the tender age of the prince, who was also very young, he gave him as companions the Count of Fondi, Maddaloni and Marigliano , and also sent another army to Apulia, led by his son Duke of Sant'Angelo Francis, to control those lands.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Pope Innocent terrified by the preparations for war, not seeing the appearance of René Duke of Lorraine invited by him to conquer the kingdom, asked for help from the Venetian who were powerful in Italy at the time, promising him that, after the conquest of the kingdom, he would offer him good part of that, but the Venetians did not accept the offer and still neutrally tried to support both the Pope and the King, suitably for their own interests. Meanwhile, the Duke of Calabria had invaded the Papal State and after having fought many battles he had managed to get to the gates of Rome, laying siege to it. In the meantime Ferrante tried, through tricks and deceptions, to bring the conspiring barons to his side.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Pope, after three months, seeing neither René appear nor rescued by the Venetians, increasingly annoyed by the College of Cardinals and by the complaints of many soldiers and barons of the kingdom (who devastated the Papal States for not getting the pay from the Pontiff ), finally decided to enter into a peace treaty and persuade the barons to agree with the King. The Barons, unable otherwise, accepted the agreement, which on 12 August 1486, with the participation of the Archbishop of Milan, the Count of Tendiglia, Ambassadors of the King of Spain and Sicily, he was accepted in the name of King Ferrante by Giovanni Pontano, famous scholar of those times. Among the conditions of the treaty was that the King recognized the Roman Church, paying him the usual income, as well as the chinea, and stopped harassing the barons.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The Duke of Milan, Ferdinand the Catholic King of Aragon and Sicily and Lorenzo de' Medici were the ones who signed the agreement between Ferrante and the Barons.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Pope Innocent VIII, after the peace treaty, was a close friend of the king throughout his life, and pleased him in everything he asked of him. On 4 June 1492 he sent a bull at his request in which he declared that after the death of Ferrante the successor of the kingdom would be his eldest son Alfonso Duke of Calabria, in compliance with the bulls of Pope Eugene IV and Pius II, his predecessors; and in the absence of the Duke of Calabria, Ferrandino should have succeeded.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The barons, although reassured by the Pope and the King of Spain and Sicily, knew Alfonso's cruelty and Ferrante's lack of faith towards them, remaining greatly afflicted by them. Pietro di Guevara, Grand Seneschal, died precisely of this affliction. After the peace, the barons, gathered together, fortified themselves in their fortresses; but the Duke of Calabria and King Ferrante, having them in their hands, tried to deceive them, offering them security and showing them their humanity. Many barons, deceived, were reassured, but the Prince of Salerno, suspecting the king's deception, escaped secretly from the kingdom and went to Rome, here seeing that the Pope had no intention of renewing the war, if he went in France.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante and Alfonso, in fact, imperiously felt the need to take revenge on the two traitor rioters, Coppola and Petrucci. The propitious moment was the celebration of the wedding of Marco, son of the Count of Sarno with the daughter of the Duke of Amalfi, nephew of the King, whose party took place in the great hall of the Castel Nuovo. All souls were filled with immense jubilation when suddenly they were arrested and destined with the others to last torture. Ferrante also imprisoned Francesco Coppola, Count of Sarno, the Secretary Petrucci, the Counts of Carinola and Policastro with his sons, Aniello Arcamone brother-in-law of the Secretary and Giovanni Impoù Catalano. After trials and other solemnities, they were condemned to the deprivation of all honors Titles, Dignity, Offices, Cavalry, Feuds, nobility and were condemned to be beheaded. Their assets were then incorporated into the tax authorities. Moving, however, was the speech and farewell that the Count of Sarno pronounced to his children from the top of the gallows.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: After this episode, on 10 February the king imprisoned the Prince of Altamura, the Prince of Bisignano, the Duke of Melfi, the Duke of Nardò, the Count of Morcone, the Count of Lauria, the Count of Mileto, the Count of Noja, the Duke of Sessa and many other Knights. Stimulated by the Duke of Calabria made almost all of them die secretly; but to make the world believe that they were still alive the king sent them for a long time the provision for their needs. In the end, however, having been seen the executioner with a gold chain that belonged to the prince of Bisignano, the rumor spread that they had been slaughtered, closed in some sacks and thrown into the sea on a night of great storm.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: After this episode the clamors of the sovereigns arose from all sides for having violated the faith on which the sacred pact that granted forgiveness to all the barons was based.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Alfonso cleared himself and Ferrante did too, but in vain. The Pope then urged Charles VIII to invade the kingdom, however Ferrante with a new treaty averted the threat. In this time almost the whole kingdom had a great shortage of food and everywhere people could be seen dying of hunger, but the providence of the King purely took notice, using every means to make the condition of his peoples less sad. The Neapolitans, grateful, by public decree struck medals in his honor, in which there was on one side the effigy of the king with the letters Ferdinandus DG Hierusalem, Siciliae Rex and on the other a woman dressed in long clothes, having in the right two ears of wheat and on the left a corba full of ears with the following inscription: "Frug. Ac. Ordo. Et- P. Neap. Opt. Princip".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Ferdinand the Catholic, having understood that Ferrante had disobeyed the pact, began to complain to him, taking the pretext of conquering the kingdom of Naples. King Ferrante, having understood the dissatisfaction of the Catholic King, sent Giovanni Nauclerio to Spain to apologize for not having been able to do anything else since the restless barons began to plot new conspiracies against him. Giovanni, seeing that the Catholic king was dissatisfied with that embassy, began to organize a wedding with the help of Queen Joanna, wife of Ferrante and sister of the Catholic King, between Ferrandino, eldest son of the Duke of Calabria, and one of the Ferdinand II's daughters, but the negotiations were not concluded.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: After so many political events, Ferrante continued to direct the state. Active and hardworking, he was respectful of the customs of the nation. After having enriched himself and enriched the state with the ruin of the barons, to keep the kingdom safe and therefore to keep the greatest condottieri of that century at his service, such as Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the two Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, Niccolò di Pitigliano and many others, he began to fortify the fortresses of the capital again, without receiving a minimum of disturbance from these voluntary and pleasant operations.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante, with a Pragmatic entitled De scolaribus doctorandis, ordered his subjects to promote sciences in the capital and after Naples he wanted only the city of L'Aquila to be granted the privilege of license to open a Studium.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In December 1491 Ferrante received a visit from a group of pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. This group was led by William I, Landgrave of Lower Hesse.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On April 8, 1492, Lorenzo de' Medici died, and shortly after also Innocent VIII. The Pope's successor was Alexander VI and that of Lorenzo Piero de' Medici, who continued to be an ally of King Ferrante. Encouraged by Ludovico Sforza, in 1493 the French king Charles VIII, heir to the Angevin pretenders of Naples, was preparing to invade Italy for the conquest of the Kingdom and Ferrante understood that he was facing the greatest danger he had ever faced. With an almost prophetic instinct, he warned the Italian princes against the calamity that was about to befall them, but the negotiations with Pope Alexander VI and Ludovico il Moro failed and Ferrante died before having assured peace to his kingdom.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Ferrante, who up to 1493 with his prudence had maintained the peace both in the Kingdom and in Italy, knowing that France was preparing for war, began to reinforce the kingdom and to recruit armies to resist such a powerful enemy; but due to a great phlegm and then fever, on the fourteenth day of his infirmity, he died on January 25, 1494 overwhelmed more by the sorrows of the soul than by age. This tenacious man maintained physical health and mental clarity until the end of his life; his sturdy and muscular body withered in old age and his thick dark hair, cut short in the prime of life, became long and white, but only a few serious illnesses are remembered of him.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Shortly before his death, not believing that his time had really come, he had his hair and jaws accommodated, which seemed to be falling, but, suddenly feeling faint, trembling said to the children and grandchildren who were around him these words: "My children, be blessed "; and turning to a crucifix he said:""Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori (God, forgive my sins)", and immediately died. The cause of his death was determined in 2006 to have been colorectal cancer (mucinous adenocarcinoma type with mutation in the KRas gene), by examination of his mummy. His remains show levels of carbon 13 and nitrogen 15 consistent with historical reports of considerable consumption of meat. The death of this sovereign was preceded by huge earthquakes, which caused many buildings to collapse in Naples, Capua, Gaeta and Aversa and it is said that on the day he was buried, the Mint of Naples had largely collapsed.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante's funeral, which was celebrated by order of Alfonso, was solemn and neither the barons nor the primates of the city were second in giving him the extreme offices. Two funeral prayers were celebrated, one inside the Castel Nuovo in the presence of the militias and the other in the Church of San Domenico Maggiore.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: His embalmed corpse was placed in a chest covered with gold brocade , and was buried in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. His sepulcher can be seen in the sacristy of the basilica. His heart was enclosed with very sweet heights in a small golden urn engraved with the verses: "Fernandus senior, qui condidit aurea saecla (Ferdinand the elder, who founded the golden age). Hic felix Italum vivit in virum hours".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: His death, unfortunately fatal, led to ruin not only his progeny and the kingdom, but showered him of innumerable evils throughout the Italy.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On the throne he was succeeded by his son Alfonso II of Naples, who in turn abdicated very soon in favor of his own son Ferrandino due to the much feared invasion of Charles VIII of France, who in 1494 fell to Italy .


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The move did not have the desired effects: the Aragonese lineage was by now dangerously vacillating and the imminent arrival of the French sovereign pushed many Neapolitan nobles to take sides with the invader, facilitating the future fall of the royals from the throne.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: King Ferrante was of medium height, had a large head, a beautiful long brown mop, was dark-faced, had a beautiful forehead and a proportionate waist. He was very robust and it was said that he was even endowed with superhuman strength, to the point that one day - as it is said - going to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine to listen to mass, he met an angry bull sowing seeds in Piazza del Mercato; and stopped him by grabbing him by a horn.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante was very graceful in reasoning, shrewd, modest, patient to suffer things of his contrary genius, ready and grateful in giving an audience, resolute in negotiations and very right simulator. He was gifted with great courage and remarkable political ability. The buffoons were very welcome to him, and he gave them many thanks on a few occasions. He was a lover of hunting, especially the art of falconry. He was courteous and liberal, for example one day he donated 300 horses to a Genoese friend of his, called Olietto de Tiesso.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: This sovereign was adorned with many letters and well versed in law, and he considered this science more necessary than any other for the rulers of peoples. He especially loved men of graceful mottos and poets and it is said that at their request he forgave those guilty of serious crimes. Ferrante greatly protected the sciences and letters and with great royal generosity he lavished on the men who were lovers of them and granted extensive privileges and aid to poor scholars. He was very fond of books, so much so that his library, called Aragonese, was celebrated as one of the main ones of those times. He was, as mentioned, a patron of the arts and a lover of letters, in fact he wrote a book containing someepistles and very elegant prayers called Militari, which was published in 1486, where his good taste for good letters can be seen. Pietro Napoli Signorelli cites two other letters with praise, one called Audiat hodierna die and the other Studebo quantum potero.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Although Sicily after the death of Alfonso I passed under the reign of Giovanni, King Ferrante wanted to make use of the title of King of Sicily, in fact in all the pragmatics and edicts read: Ferdinandus Arag. DG Rex Siciliae, Hierus, Ungariae, Valentiae etc.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Gaetano Canzano Avarna describes him as "selfish and ruthless, when he could promise himself some pleasure, he gladly obtained it, often at the expense of other people's unhappiness, not being scrupulous in this for that kind of hatred he had conceived for his fellow men, to whom he was happy to try those same goads that he himself had tried ". Indeed, if he generously remunerated those who had been loyal to his cause, such as Count Honored II Caetani, he was on the other hand severe, vindictive and cruel towards his enemies, and often resorted to deception and false promises in order to lure them in.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He organized numerous weddings of poor maidens and had a very rich tapestry that had been the property of Queen Giovanna II . After the King's death, the Duke of Ferrara bought it, who, seeing it by the Emperor Charles V in Reggio, in the Palazzo di Alfonso d'Este, was very amazed. Don Ferrante with his virtues left a Kingdom that he had led to greater greatness, perhaps more than any other sovereign who would have governed it, for which many famous writers mentioned him in their famous writings.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante was also very attached to music, for which he showed real enthusiasm. In fact, he constantly sought singers educated at the Burgundy school and expert organ builders who received a warm welcome in his court. Among the numerous personalities present in his court chapel we remember the Flemish music theorist and composer Johannes Tinctoris . Ferrante himself is credited with a certain skill as an instrumentalist.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Like his father, Ferrante was also a man of great faith : attached to religious ceremonial, he professed the same devotion to the cult of the Virgin, washed the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday and attended the mass on his knees.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He was modest in eating and in his manner of presenting himself, although elegant in his ways and in dressing, he inherited his father's love for ceremonial and magnificence, as evidenced by the welcome given to a Burgundian embassy in 1472, one of the greatest manifestations of princely splendor of the time, according to Pontano, and the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of the Duke of Calabria with Ippolita Maria Sforza.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He was fascinated, like other princes, by the sumptuous ceremonies of the Orders of chivalry, and having control of the Aragonese Order of the Giara, also known as the Giglio, he also founded the Order of the Ermine with the motto "Malo mori quam foedari", which conferred with liberality, receiving Orders such as the Golden Fleece and the Garter in exchange . His youthful passion for the more mundane aspects of cavalry, tournaments and horseback riding lasted well beyond maturity, helping him to maintain physical strength.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He was a very passionate man, he had an almost pathological attraction towards young women and, despite the numerous lovers and concubines, he loved very much his wife Isabella di Chiaramonte, a woman of exceptional virtues, whose death greatly afflicted him. As a father he was very present and very fond of his offspring, especially known is the strong affection shown for his daughters and for the eldest Eleonora.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He loved children very much and liked to surround himself with them, in fact when Eleonora herself went to visit Naples in 1477, Ferrante persuaded her to live at his court, in addition to her newborn, also her little niece Beatrice, who later grew up like a daughter. He also took under his own protection the two orphans of Count Don Diego Cavaniglia, or Troiano and Nicolina, as he had also protected Diego himself, who was very soon orphaned of a father.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: When he imprisoned Marino Marzano for having betrayed him in the conspiracy of the barons, Ferrante, moved by tenderness towards his family, took care of them himself and particularly of his niece Camilla, who was educated at his court. The little Maria Balsa, daughter of the despot of Serbia or more probably of the lord of Misia, had also found refuge at his court, who together with her aunt Andronica Cominata fled from Greece invaded by the Turks.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante managed to lay the foundations for the formation of an embryo of a modern state thanks to the creation of new political institutions such as the Collateral Council and the consolidation of financial structures such as the Regia Camera della Sommaria.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The skills of Ferrante and his diplomats, skilled in weaving alliances in order to achieve Neapolitan hegemony in the system of Italian states, the fruits of the sovereign's economic strategy with the introduction of the art of silk and printing, politics of promotion and cultural attraction, the severe exercise of power also through the repression of the conspiracy of the barons led The Kingdom of Naples, with intellectuals of the caliber of Pontano, Panormita and others, to participate as a protagonist in Humanism and the Renaissance.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He was responsible for a first expansion of the walls of Naples, which was followed by a second one in 1499 . The Aragonese wall of Naples, in fact, was begun under his reign, in June 1484. Ferrante surrounded Naples with walls towards the eastern side and reduced the walls erected by Giovanna II from the Dogana del Sale to the Corregge road into a larger form . today Via Medina . On 15 June 1488 he placed the first stone of them behind the Carmelo monastery, where a tower was built, called Torre Spinelli, which took its name from the architect who had erected it, Francesco Spinelli. The walls were led up to the monastery of San Giovanni in Carbonara, who at that time was locked inside the city walls and gave the direction of this work to the architect Carlo Majano, who added the Lavinaro road to the city. In 1476, when he moved the customs office near the port, he ordered that the arsenal be moved under the walls of the royal palace.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Considered one of the greatest expressions of fifteenth-century defensive architecture, the walls stemmed from the need to strengthen the protections of the capital, especially in the aftermath of the Ottoman capture of Otranto in 1480. It replaced the obsolete Angevin curtain with a structure more responsive to the new defensive needs, deriving from the introduction of artillery . The new structure started from the Durazzo castle of the Sperone, of which the Brava tower is still recognizable today, with the Torre Il Trono. The development of the new fortification, delimiting the eastern side of the capital, was about two kilometers long and included twenty powerful cylindrical towers embanked at the base, including four gates. The thickness of the sections of curtain connecting the aforementioned towers reached in some cases even 7 meters, and consisted of blocks of yellow tuff . The side facing the countryside was covered with blocks of high-strength gray piperno . Each tower was completely filled, so that it could offer maximum passive resistance to the firing of the siege bombers . During the sixteenth century, in the viceregal period, the walls on the eastern side survived intact the renovation that took place under Pedro of Toledo, which led to the construction of a modern bastion wall to delimit the city. Contrary to the total demolition suffered by the latter starting from the mid- eighteenth century, the eastern walls resisted substantially intact until the post-unitary period and then underwent a partial demolition during the rehabilitation works.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Under his reign the construction of the Castel Nuovo was completed, the magnificent palace of Poggioreale was commissioned by his son Alfonso and the beautiful Palazzo Como was erected, now home to the Filangieri Museum (built between 1464 and 1490), Porta Nolana, the Palazzo Diomede Carafa (1470), the facade of the Palazzo Sanseverino, now the Church of Gesù Nuovo (1470), as well as the Porta Capuana (defined as the most beautiful door of the Renaissance together with the door of San Pietro in Perugia).


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Don Ferrante reformed the studies of the university of Naples, reopened in 1465 with a teaching staff of twenty-two members, supporting it much more than his father had, and allowed the study to be added to the traditional course of study humanistic of Greek and Latin, even if, in reality, its purpose had perhaps been to restore the university monopoly of higher education under strict state control, as its founder Frederick II had conceived it . In 1478 he had such confidence in the possibilities offered by the University of Naplesto prohibit his subjects from studying or seeking a doctorate outside the Kingdom . Teachers were also recruited into the Kingdom and, among the few foreigners appointed, only the Florentine Francesco Pucci found the Neapolitan environment tempting enough to remain there forever. Furthermore, Ferrante managed to ensure that the university flourished through learned professors; and for this purpose he invited Costantino Lascaris with his gracious diploma to come and teach the Greek language, assigning him a large salary corresponding to the fame of his name. Ferrante, with a Pragmatic entitled De scolaribus doctorandis, ordered his subjects to promote sciences in the capital and wanted the city of Aquila to grant itself the privilege of license to open a Studium.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante promoted Renaissance culture and art with his patronage, surrounding himself with numerous artists and writers who flourished in his kingdom such as: Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Bartolomeo Platina, Jacopo della Pila, Raffaele Volaterrano, Antonio Fiorentino della Cava, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Pietro and Ippolito del Donzello, Francesco Del Tuppo, Giovanni Giocondo, Giovanni Francesco Mormando, Francesco Laurana, Pietro da Milano, Cola Rapicano, Cristoforo Majorana, Tommaso and Giovan Tommaso Malvito, Ermolao Barbaro the Younger and the Elder, Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano, Bernardo Rossellino, Francesco Pagano, Riccardo Quartararo, Pietro Befulco, Novello da San Lucano, Guido Mazzoni, Niccolò Antonio known as Colantonio, Angiolillo Arcuccio, Antonio De Ferraris, Poliziano, Teodoro Gaza, Cola Rapicano, Pietro Alemanno, Giovanni Pontano, Antonio Beccadelli and many others. The Panormita was the second secretary of the King and President of the Chamber . Il Pontano succeeded Beccadelli as rector of the renowned Academy of Naples founded by his predecessor (one of the very first academies founded in Europe, the first of the Kingdom of Naples and the oldest in Italystill existing), of which he was the main representative and which was later named after him, whose most illustrious students were: Sannazaro, Antonio Flaminio, Cardinal Sadoleto, Giano Anisio, Giovanni Cotta, Andrea Sabatini, Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva and many others.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante completed the construction and decoration of the Castel Nuovo using artisans of almost exclusively Italian origin such as Pietro da Milano, one of the artists called by Alfonso I, who returned with Francesco Laurana in 1465 to complete the triumphal arch and to make some busts of the royal family. By order of Ferrante, as a lasting warning, the splendid bronze door of the Castel Nuovo, called La Vittoriosa, was cast in bronze, through the artillery removed by the enemies, with the representation of the king's triumph in the conspiracy of the barons, the work of Guglielmo Dello Monaco, a Parisian who had served Alfonso as a manufacturer of cannons, clocks and bells. On the door appear in six pictures expressed in bas - relief some events of the conspiracy: in the first of them, from the left side of the beholder, the apparent peace of the Duke of Sessa is scrolled, with the verses that say: "PRINCEPS CVM IACOBO CVM DIOFEBO QVEM DOLOSE / VT REGEM PERMANT COLLOQVIVM SIMVLANT". Likewise in the first one on the right is represented the King who valiantly puts the conspirators to flight with the verses: "HOS REX MARTIPOTENS ANIMOSIOR HECTORE CLARO / SENSIT VT INSIDIAS ENSE MICANTE FVGAT". The other paintings represent the siege with the taking of Troy and the surrender of Acquaviva, with the carved verses that say: TROIA DEDIT OUR REQVIEM FINEMQ (VE) LABORI / IN QVA HOSTEM FVDI FORTITER AC POPVLI "; " HOSTEM TROIANIS FERNANDVS VICIT IN ARVIS / SICVT POMPEVM CESAR IN EHACTIS"; " HINC TROIAM VERSVS MAGNO CONCVSSA FEAR / CASTRA MOVENT HOSTES NE SVBITO PEREANT"; "AQVA DIA FORTEM CEPIT REX FORTIOR VRBEM/ ANDEGAVOS PELLENS VIRIBVS EXIMII".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Towards the end of his life, Ferrante also planned the construction of a large building, a huge Renaissance-style palace perhaps intended to accommodate the administration and the court of justice, but which was never built.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Ferrante erected the Porta del Carmine and that of San Gennaro and for this work he spent 28466 ducats, on his order the table bridges placed in front of each gate of the city were removed and on the side of the Carmelo church he had that door built that can be seen adorned of travertine stones, he had the Porta Capuana transported, which was near the Castel Capuano on the sides of the church of Santa Caterina in Formiello, where it was magnificently built with sculptures worked in marvelous fine marbles, he had an armory built such as to be able to contain weapons for sixty thousand soldiers, completed the famous tower that now serves as the bell tower of the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore begun by Charles II, for his arrangement the cenacle of the friars of Santa Maria la Nova was painted by the brothers Pietro and Ippolito del Donzello and he also had many places of worship repaired, adorning them with precious furnishings.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: To his Christian piety we owe the reconstruction of the Cathedral Church of Naples, which almost all collapsed due to the terrible earthquakes of 5 and 30 December 1456, causing the death of thirty thousand people in the capital and he wanted many Neapolitan noble families to participate in this reconstruction. , which had patronage chapels there, allowing them to place their noble weapons on each pillar of the chapels to rebuild. In Novello da San Lucano he entrusted him with the reconstruction of the basilica of San Domenico Maggiore, after the ruin of a large part of the building due to the previous earthquake. The De Dominicihe says that the pillars were placed by him, the ceiling was renovated and the ornaments of the chapel were completed, but in the biography of the del Donzello, contained in his work, he also attributes to them the direction of some works. Terminio adds that, as an example to Ferrante, many nobles contributed to the expense of new pillars, at the top of which they placed their insignia.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: In 1486, Ferrante commissioned the architect and military engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini to expand the fortress of Taranto built by the Byzantines, in order to replace the medieval type of towers conceived for the plumbing defense. In fact, the use of cannons following the discovery of gunpowder required wide and low circular towers to cushion the impact of cannonballs, equipped with ramps or slides that allowed the pieces to be moved from one tower to the other. 'other, as well as equipped with a large and sturdy parapet with specific openings for the guns. The new fortification was to include seven towers, four of which joined to form a quadrilateral, and the remaining three aligned along the moat to the Mar Piccolo. The four towers were respectively dedicated to San Cristofalo, San Lorenzo, the Bandiera and the Vergine Annunziata.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Thus was born the Aragonese castle of the city, and in 1491 the triangular -shaped ravelin between the Torre della Bandiera and the San Cristofalo tower was added on the side facing the Great Sea. The castle was completed in 1492, as can be seen from the engraving of a walled plaque on the "Porta Paterna" together with the Aragonese coat of arms quartered with the tripartite of Angiò family:


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: ""Ferdinandus Rex Divi Alphonsi Filius Divi Ferdinandi Nepos Aragonius Arcem Ha(n)c Vetustate Collabente(m) Ad Im(pe)tus Tormentorum Substine(n)dos Quae (Ni)mio Feruntur Spiritu In Ampliorem Firmioremq(ue) Formam Restituit Millesimo CCCCLXXXXII"".


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: "King Ferdinand of Aragon, son of the divine Alfonso and grandson of the divine Ferdinand , rebuilt this castle in a larger and more solid form due to old age, so that it could withstand the impetus of the bullets that is endured with maximum vigor - 1492."


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Under Ferrante, the very rich royal library founded by Alfonso in Castel Capuano continued to grow at an impressive rate, thanks to purchases, gifts and the confiscation of the collections of the rebel barons.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The use of Neapolitan as the official language of the Kingdom promoted in the court the fashion of a poetry in which the cultured and the popular tradition merged, in a way not unlike what happened in Florence with Lorenzo de 'Medici . This culture also showed more accessible outside of court, spreading the ' literacy among the nobility and encouraging the growth of a popular literature that finds its best example in the Rookie of Masuccio Salerno.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: The art for which Ferrante showed real enthusiasm, and in which his tastes were closest to those of Alfonso, was music : he continually sought out singers educated at the Burgundy school ; expert organ builders received a warm welcome and in the early seventies Johannes Tinctoris arrived in Naples to complete the array of talents active in the court chapel and to develop the tradition of secular polyphony, so that the Neapolitan city excelled over the whole Italy for most of the century. Johannes Tinctoris, who defined himself "chaplain and musician of the king of Sicily", performed important functions in the service of Ferrante: chaplain cantor (archicapellanus), instrumentalist of ribeca and vihuela de arco (later known as viola da gamba ), tutor, composer and legal counsel. Tinctoris had an intellectually prominent role at court and in October 1487 he was sent to Northern Europe to hire new singers for the royal chapel. Due to his excellent knowledge of languages and law, King Ferrante also ordered him to draw up an Italian translation of the articles of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Articuli et ordinatione of the Order of the Golden Fleece).


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Furthermore, Ferrante established in Naples the first musical school in Italy and one of the first in Europe, which involved the major musicians of the time such as: Bernhard Hykaert, the aforementioned Tinctoris, Guglielmo Guarnier and Franchino Gaffurio, who from 1475 to 1478 covered the position of Master of the Chapel of the Royal Palace. In this period the works of Greek musical treatises such as Aristoxenus, author of the fundamental Elementa harmonica and Elementa rhytmica, Aristide Quintiliano, author of a De musica, fundamental for the in-depth treatment of the subject and " Institutio oratoria ", in which the author parallels rhetorical art, with the musical composition, which is able to arouse emotions, prodrome of what will be the theory of affects in the Neapolitan music school of the eighteenth century. This school founded by Ferrante was very important for the development of music in Italy but above all it determined the foundations of the nascent Neapolitan Music School.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: His diplomacy was very expensive and to strengthen the finances, already proven by the patronage of Alfonso I, Ferrante introduced an austerity regime in the court and in the state apparatus, to facilitate commercial traffic for his vassals, he opened it no less in east that in the west, encouraged businesses and traders by launching a series of initiatives aimed at increasing trade exchanges with Venice, Pisa and Spain ; it favored the migration from the countryside to the city and allowed the immigration of numerous Jews expelled from Spain through thedecree of the Alhambra issued by the Catholic kings. One of the refugees, Don Isaac Abrabanel, even received a position at the Neapolitan court of Ferrante which he also held under his successor, Alfonso II. Overall, the Neapolitan population increased rapidly and it was necessary to expand the city walls.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Among the many graces and wide privileges granted to Brindisi, he also gave her, for the loyalty shown to him, the privilege of minting coins, a privilege that he also granted to Capua, Chieti, Sulmona and L'Aquila. He ordered the latter to strike coins not different from those of the Neapolitan mint.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: During his reign the Royal House of Naples had nothing to envy in terms of splendor to the Courts of the major princes of Europe, given that Ferrante wanted to increase and introduce many arts, such as the art of silk weaving, introduced in Naples by Roger II of Sicily, the art of working wool in 1480, the art of goldsmiths and the art of weaving gold drapes and brocades and to perfect it he called Marino di Cataponte and Florence from Venice Francesco di Nero, giving them generously.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Historian Jacob Burckhardt described Ferrante's recreational activities as follows: "his pleasures were of two kinds: he liked to have his opponents near him, either alive in well-guarded prisons, or dead and embalmed, dressed in the costume which they wore in their lifetime." Fearing no one, he would take great pleasure in conducting his guests on a tour of his prized "museum of mummies". Indeed, Ferdinand had a novel way of dealing with his enemies. After having them murdered, he had their bodies mummified. He kept them in a private ‘black museum’, dressed in the clothes that they had worn in life. If he suspected one of his subjects of plotting against him, he took him to visit the 'museum’ as a deterrent.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Controversial is the situation relating to the children of Giovannella Caracciolo, the most beautiful of the daughters of Count Giacomo di Brienza, whom Ferrante obtained by force in 1472 through agreements with his father, but without the consent of either the mother or the person directly concerned. Giovannella, who must have been very young (she is defined as a puta, that is a child), remained at court for about two years. The Successes et tragic love Silvio Ascanio Crown report that gave three children to Ferrante:


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: Other sources say she is the mother of Cesare and Alfonso, whom the Successes indicate instead as children of Piscicella, as well as of Ferdinando, count of Arena and Stilo, and Leonora. It is clear that she could not be the mother of all of these, in relation both to her young age, to the short time spent at court, and to the well-known use of contraceptives that Alfonso had procured for his father from the East.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: of the novel " Of the forbidden amor - Neapolitan history of the fifteenth century " by Dino Falconio (2014), inspired by the alleged incestuous relationship that Ferrante would have entertained with his sister Eleonora.


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: He also appears as a character in the novel " The Duchess of Milan" by Michael Ennis (1992), as well as in comics:


title: Ferdinand I of Naples

text: On 29 September 1465 Ferrante founded the famous Order of the Ermine, which was awarded the same sovereign, his son Alfonso, his nephew Ferrandino and many other important personalities, such as Ercole I d'Este, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Ludovico il Moro, Federico from Montefeltro and Charles I of Burgundy.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy is a series of games within the "Final Fantasy" video game franchise. It was primarily developed by series creator and developer Square Enix, which also acted as publisher for all titles. While featuring various worlds and different characters, each "Fabula Nova Crystallis" game is ultimately based on and expands upon a common mythos focusing on important crystals tied to deities. The level of connection to the mythos varies between each title, with each development team given the freedom to adapt the mythos to fit the context of a game's story.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: The series, originally announced in 2006 as "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII", currently consists of seven games across multiple platforms. "Final Fantasy XIII", designed as the series' flagship title, was released in 2009. The creative forces behind the series include many developers from previous "Final Fantasy" titles, including Shinji Hashimoto and Motomu Toriyama. The mythos was conceived and written by Kazushige Nojima. The first games announced for the series were "Final Fantasy XIII", "Final Fantasy XV" (as "Versus XIII"), and "Final Fantasy Type-0" (as "Agito XIII"). All three games went through delays. After "Final Fantasy XIII" and "Type-0"s releases, their respective teams used ideas and concepts from development to create additional games. For later games, other studios have been brought in to help with aspects of development. "Final Fantasy XV" was distanced from the series brand for marketing purposes, though it retains thematic connections.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: Seven titles, the original three projects and multiple sequels or spin-offs, have been released as of 2016. The series is complemented by works in related media, including companion books, novelizations, and manga. "Final Fantasy XV" notably expanded into a multimedia project, spawning a and an . Individual games have generally received a positive reception, although opinions have been more mixed over various aspects of the three "Final Fantasy XIII" games. Reception of the mythos' use in the released games has also been mixed: while some critics called it confusing or too similar to the lore of the main series, others were impressed by its scope and use. Retrospective opinions on the series have also been mixed.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy" currently consists of seven titles across multiple platforms, including sequels and spin-offs of the original three entries. The entries in the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" series share the same mythology, interpreted differently and referred to in varying degrees for each of the game worlds.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: "Final Fantasy XIII" and its sequels have a strong connection to the mythos, making extensive use of its terminology and involving many of its deities. The universe of "Final Fantasy Type-0" used the terminology and made minor reference to the mythos while focusing on the human side of events, although these references were added during later story development. While the mythos is still present in "Final Fantasy XV", it was "disconnected" from the core framework, with specific terminology being removed and its emphasis reduced to become a background element for the world and story.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: The universes of "Final Fantasy XIII", "Type-0" and "Final Fantasy XV" are unrelated to each other, though common elements and themes are present. The first is a common narrative theme of harmful interference by the mythos' deities in the affairs of humans, and those humans' choice of whether to accept or challenge the predetermined fates given to them. Tetsuya Nomura defined this theme as "a battle of the gods that lies behind each tale and gives it inspiration in a different way". Hajime Tabata later defined the theme as a tale of humans placing their lives at risk after being chosen by the crystal. The second common element is the structure of the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" universe, which is divided in two: the mortal world, where humans live, and the afterlife or . A recurring theme is subverting the series' traditional view of crystals, making them objects that brought both prosperity and tragedy by their influence.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: A common element not related to the mythos, themes or plots of the series is the use of Latin in the games' titles or worlds, often as key words to describing themes and story points: the series' title translates as "The New Tale of the Crystal", 'Agito' roughly translates as "to put into motion", while 'Versus' translates as both "to turn around" and "against", which were described as representing key narrative concepts. 'Agito' was kept within the "Final Fantasy Type-0" universe with both an in-universe concept and the title of its prequel. 'Versus' was used in early trailers for "Final Fantasy XV" after its re-reveal in 2013, carrying the tagline 'A World of the Versus Epic'. Commenting on the high use of Latin in "Final Fantasy XV" prior to its public name change, Nomura said he wanted a language that was no longer used on a daily basis and that people "won't be able to understand and yet appreciate", desiring a sense of general equality.


title: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy

text: In the mythology, the god seizes control of the mortal world by killing his mother, the creator goddess , who vanishes into the Unseen Realm. Believing that the mortality of the world is Mwynn's curse, Bhunivelze creates three new deities to search for the gate to the Unseen Realm so he can control both worlds. The first deity, , is tasked with terraforming the world; the second deity, , is discarded because of her resemblance to Mwynn; the third deity, , acts as his protector. Bhunivelze then enters a deep sleep, while Lindzei and Pulse carry out their missions. Distraught at being abandoned, Etro kills herself, and humans are born from her blood. Once in the Unseen Realm, Etro finds Mwynn being consumed by a force called chaos, which threatens to destroy reality. As Mwynn fades, she tasks Etro with protecting the balance between the worlds. Etro gives humans pieces of chaos that become their "hearts". Because humans held chaos within them, they maintained the balance through their death and reincarnation. Since then, humans have either worshiped or feared Pulse and Lindzei, and refer to Etro as the goddess of death. The mythos' deities hold similar roles in each game's setting, but are not the same characters in a narrative sense.