Fordham University            The Jesuit University of New York
The Community of the Italian Angevins French In Angevin Southern
Italy   French texts were produced in the Angevin courts and
among the French settlers in southern Italy from the late
thirteenth century, with the arrival of Charles I of Anjou,
until the last effort at Angevin power in Naples in the mid-
fifteenth century. Angevin presence in Naples initially brought
two classes of French speakers; the French nobles who came to
southern Italy to support Charles' power, and an admistrative
class to work in the courts they established there. These courts
employed both French native speakers and Italians who were
proficient in French, among them many members of the Franco-
Fiorentini community. The continuation of Angevin power into the
fourteenth century attracted students from French-speaking areas
like Paris and Orléans to Naples, home to a well-established
university which functioned under the dominion of a French-
speaking power.  The corpus of Fr