ABSTRACT
Acts of cultural identity, as the analysis of Parthenopeus has demonstrated, do not happen once and for all. Rather, they result from an ongoing process of negotiation taking place in a context that changes in time constantly. Parthenopeus, its language, its early publications and its revisions, in this perspective, are different facets of a complex strategy of intersubjectivity, which is articulated in Pontano’s adequation to Beccadelli’s culture, his distinction from the Iberian poets active at the Aragonese court, and his self-authentication in the eyes of his readers residing outside the Kingdom of Naples. This strategy, however, was carefully tailored for Alfonso’s kingdom and was thus destined to change throughout the years, particularly when the throne passed to Ferrante in 1458. A new sociolinguistic landscape, profound changes in the relationship between the state bureaucracy and the local nobility, as well as a new set of political and cultural affiliations with other Italian states, to name only a few, are all factors of change introduced by Ferrante, which Pontano and the other poets living in Aragonese Naples had to weigh carefully in renegotiating their cultural identities. Pontano, once again, decided to use a collection of poems as a strategic tool to define his identity.
