The D’Avalos-Colonna Literary Circle: A ‘Renewed Parnassus’

Abstract

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