Intercultural Identity and the Local Vernacular
Samantha Kelly
The first history of Naples in over four centuries, the Cronaca di Partenope (c. 1350) articulated a Neapolitan identity through its narration past and delineation as geographical centre relation to various peripheries or ‘others’. As vehicles identity, time space interacted complex sometimes surprising ways. Recent developments, notably Naples’ new status royal capital, help explain Cronaca’s composition after such long historiographical silence. But affirming ‘centre’, eschewed contemporary centrality southern Italian kingdom (itself firmly anchored Latin West) instead resuscitated an early-medieval, Mediterranean geography which was balanced between Greek, Muslim transalpine neighbours. Similarly, use local vernacular both reflection own age—Neapolitan having only very recently been utilized literary language—and choice that facilitated nostalgic evocation city worlds: parochialism, permitted expression cosmopolitan informed by non-Latin well elements.
Medieval History Journal