Born into a family of lesser nobility who served the Aragonese king of Naples, Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530) studied with leading Humanist scholars and at an early age became a member of Giovanni Pontano’s Neapolitan Academy. Bound to the king’s fortunes, the poet fled with the royal court in 1495 when French forces occupied Naples for several months and again in 1501 when Louis XII of France seized its throne. A year later, the kingdom yielded to Ferdinand of Aragon who annexed it as a vice-regency to Spain. Sannazaro returned to Naples in 1505 and spent the rest of his life at his family’s seaside estate north of the city in Mergellina. There he concentrated upon composing Latin verse and befriending Cariteo, Gian Francesco Caracciolo, and other Italian poets who had remained in…
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Citation: Kennedy, William J.. "Jacopo Sannazaro". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 May 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12678, accessed 24 November 2024.]
