Napoli e il suo Regno nel congedo del poeta: i due esordi e l’epilogo del "De hortis Hesperidum" di Giovanni Pontano

Giovanni Pontano’s De hortis Hesperidum was published posthumously in the summer of 1505 for the types of Aldo Manuzio. It presents a reinterpretation and an updating of the Virgilian georgic model with the help of the erudition and the mythopoietic ability of its author. The beginning of the two books and the epilogue of the whole poem build an unforgettable material and immaterial image of Naples and its Kingdom, an image made of personal feelings and, above all, of allusions to the permanence of an ancient wisdom. This wisdom is embodied by Virgil and reaches the poet’s hands to be delivered even greater to the future generations. Since the De hortis Hesperidum and, in particular, its liminal portion represent the extreme production of Pontano, who committed himself to this work with his labor limae until almost to his death, we can recognize in these passages the poet’s farewell not only from Naples, his adopted homeland, with the enchantment of its welcoming beauty and the pride of its greatness, but also from his own poetry, with the conviction of having created for both of them a well-defined space in the eternity.