Naples

Naples is a city in Italy, originally in Etruria, founded by Greek settlers, who named it Neapolis - New City - to distinguish it from Partenope, a few kilometres away.

Naples lies south of Rome and controlled the area south of the Papal States and north of the Kingdom of Sicily, with which it was linked, under the Normans and the Angevins, with the capital being moved by the Angevins to Naples. In 1284 the two parts were split, each describing itself as a kingdom, and so they remained during period.

Under the Roman emperor Valentinian III the city was enclosed by walls, and it remained within them until the Middle Ages were more than half over. Under the Byzantine Empire, the city was made an autonomous duchy (probably a good idea, since the Byzantines had poor control over their Italian territories). Later the Muslims conquered the territory; they in turn were driven out by Normans (under William IronArm) who held the area as a direct fief of the Papacy. After the Angevin period, in the 15th century, Sicily and Naples (and Sardinia) ended up in the control of the Kings of Aragon, and thus, later (c.1504), the kings of Spain.

Inter alia, the city's patron saint in S.Gennaro, to whom a cathedral is dedicated. And it was here, in 1224, that the first State University in Europe was opened. There is a reference, in a Provencal inventory c.1426, of linen bedcovers worked in the style of Naples, which also implies a distinct design or manufactory method in the city in this field.