The University of Naples was founded on June 5, 1224, by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, making it the first state-run university in Europe. Frederick's goal was to train a class of loyal administrators and jurists for his kingdom, reducing his reliance on the papacy for education. The university quickly became a major center for legal studies and was a key institution in the intellectual life of the Kingdom of Sicily.

The University of Naples played a crucial role in the development of Italian vernacular literature. Frederick II himself was a patron of the Sicilian School, a group of poets who wrote in a refined form of Italian, influencing later poets like Dante and Petrarch. The university's culture of legal and philosophical inquiry also provided a backdrop for the poetic exploration of love, politics, and morality that characterized the Sicilian School's output.