A glorious past and a present in common.
Naples and Valencia have been united for centuries at least since the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous, and the Kingdom of Valencia and Aragon, when they were part of the same kingdom and when the Neapolitan was inserted by Alfonso as an official language.
In fact, Alfonso’s Neapolitan court was crowded by statesmen, merchants, writers and Valencian artists who contributed to make Naples the most eclectic, inspiring and innovative, capital of the Italian Renaissance. That’s obvious for a city already with more than a thousand years of civilization.
Naples and Valencia were therefore united for culture, business, commerce and political activity and in particular Naples was (as always) inspiring, even to the greatest Valencian writers: it is not by chance that the greatest work of Valencian literature “Tirant lo Blanc” is colored of environments, sensations, situations of the Neapolitan court of the time. The same work inspired centuries later another great “glory” of Spain, M.Cervantes for his Don Quixote.
Today, that link between Valencia and Naples has further strengthened with an international collaboration between the Neapolitan Academy, for the language and culture of Naples and the Institut d’Estudis Valencians and Real Académia de la Cultura Valenciana, for example.
This is a project commissioned by Massimiliano Verde, president of the Academy, for the common defense of Neapolitan and Valencian culture and language in the respective countries and internationally.
In fact, even the Valencian language suffers from many problems that are not dissimilar from those suffered in Italy by Neapolitan.
Massimiliano Verde began a work of publication in the Neapolitan language (not mere translation) of articles and documents concerning the history and traditions of the two cities, such as the figure beloved by the Sanità of Naples, the Valencian San Vincenzo Ferrer.
These documents are then written in the Valencian language by the Institute: further joint initiatives, meetings, exhibitions, conferences, etc. are scheduled.
This project was reported by Spanish magazines: as such Cultura Valenciana and Las Provincias, recently Verde realized two conference in Valencia (GAV, Centro Aragonés) and met distinguished personalities of Real Académia and Lo Rat Penat.
Very important is the recent publication in Neapolitan and Valancian “Lengua Napulitana Patremmonio ‘e ‘na cultura auniverzale ‘mpericulo” (Neapolitan Language, world heritage at risk) edited by the Institut of Estudis Valencians.
Also very important for Neapolitan language was the formal recognition by the Institute of Valencian Studies and Real Académia of Massimiliano Verde’ work to teaching Neapolitan.
This added to that of the City of Naples and other institutions also foreign as the Universidade Regional do Cariri, of Brazil.
In short, the Neapolitan Academy stands as a bridge between the two important realities, Naples and Valencia, in order to promote internationally not only the language but also cultural interests and productive synergies between Naples and even more, for the whole territory of Campania region.