Giovan Battista Basile tra “favole” campanilistiche e realtà documentaria

Abstract

This essay examines how the false belief that Giovan Battista Basile – the celebrated author of Lo Cunto de li Cunti – was born in Giugliano (Campania, Italy) on February 15, 1566, as the second son of Giovanni Giacomo Basile and Laudonia Milone arose and spread. “Cavalier” Basile actually died in Giugliano on February 23, 1632, from a virulent epidemic of diphtheria, after serving only a few days as feudal governor of Giugliano. Supported by a local priest as early as 1715, and later by local journalists, the erroneous thesis – based on a case of homonymy that actually debases the true identity of Basile’s birth parents – was however further revived in the 1970s-1980s by the media. This essay definitively refuses the false “Giugliano thesis” by gathering extremely detailed information from many different sources (Basile’s works, letters, and new unpublished documents). Through these researches, it can be definitively concluded that the famous writer Giovan Battista and the well-known singer Andreana, his sister, were born respectively in 1583 and 1586 in Naples to Francesco Antonio Basile and Cornelia Daniele and were both registered in the parish of Sant’Anna di Palazzo.