Editing Ferdinand II of Naples (section)

== Appearance and personality ==
Since childhood Ferrandino was initiated to the arts of the body as of the intellect, in fact the contemporary sources, including Baldassare Castiglione, describe him as agile and well disposed in the person, very skilled in jumping, running, vaulting, tinkering and horseback riding, as well as in rides and tournaments, competitions in which he always reported the first honor. Nevertheless, it is described just as modest: "so it was his habit that he neither rejoiced at prosperity nor troubled by sadness, with a cheerful face he gave thanks to everyone"<ref>{{cite book |title=Effemeridi delle cose fatte per il Duca di Calabria|author=Joampiero Leostello}}</ref>

He was valiant, of royal customs, loving, liberal and forgiving.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mappamondo Istorico Cioè Ordinata Narrazione Dei Quattro Sommi Imperi Del Mondo Da ... toccante le vite de' primi Dominanti in Sicilia, e de' Re di Napoli ...|author=Antonio Foresti|location=Parma|via=Oglio|year=1711}}</ref> Vincenzo Calmeta calls him "prince of high spirit and endowed with all those graces that nature and chance can give".<ref>{{cite book |title=Collettanee grece, latine, e vulgari per diuersi auctori moderni, nella morte de lardente Seraphino Aquilano, per Gioanne Philotheo Achillino bolognese in uno corpo redutte|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjvVEHiosh4C&q=alto+animo|author=Giovanni Filoteo Achillini|year = 1504}}</ref>{{blockquote|[...] always this King was vigorous, kind, meek, costumed, virtuous, and truly worthy of that Realm, named the first of all the Kings and Lords of the World, as I will say. And finally she made of his person what was possible, as it is known, at the age of twenty-seven, in a very reasonable aspect. And as it is said above, crowned he mounted a horse with all his troops of arms with a heart of Caesar [...].|Chronicon Venetum (Anonimo).<ref name="Rerum italicarum Scriptores">{{cite book |title=Rerum italicarum Scriptores|year = 1738|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBxXAAAAcAAJ|volume=24|page=13| publisher=Forni | isbn=9788827159262 }}</ref>}}{{blockquote|[...] a young man who manifested with arts contrary to those of his father, wanting to reach the sign of true glory, as if by confession of all peoples he would have reached it later, if the adverse fate of the kingdom in the flowering of the years had not taken it away from him.|[[Camillo Porzio]], La congiura dei baroni.}}In fact, Cariteo says of it: "Of the intrepid cor similar to the father, of humanity to the mother".
 
[[File:Ferrandino_d'Aragona.jpeg|link=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ferrandino_d'Aragona.jpeg|thumb|Alleged portrait of King Ferrandino. For the obvious similarities with the sixteenth-century engraving, it is in all probability on this portrait that Aliprando Caprioli relied to make it.]]

Physically he was a good-looking young man, aitante in the person, with bright eyes, head high, wide chest, dry and muscular.<ref name=":1" /> Precisely with regard to this curious tendency to keep one's head held high, Castiglione reports that "what custom King Ferrandino had contracted from infirmity" while not specifying which disease it was. He also reports that knowing that he was "very handsome" of body, "King Ferrando took the opportunity to undress sometimes in a doublet".<ref>{{cite book |title=Il Cortegiano|author=Baldassarre Castiglione}}</ref> 
Alleged portrait of King Ferrandino. For the obvious similarities with the sixteenth-century engraving, it is in all probability on this portrait that Aliprando Caprioli relied to make it.
He was also cultivated in the literary arts, having as teachers Gabriele Altilio and Aulo Giano Parrasio, and in fact he delighted in composing poems and wacky people in his spare time. One wrote, for example, to his own subject, who was amazed at his departure from Naples, probably in the dramatic days of the invasion French:<ref>{{cite book |title=Discussioni e ricerche letterarie|author=Francesco Torraca|via=F. Vigo|orig-date=1888}}</ref>{{blockquote|Who is content with my departure, <br/>
who rejoices, and laughs at who they like, <br/>
who complains and who complains, <br/>
who is afflicted by it and who despairs. <br/>
Who pulls me in this trouble and who pushes me away, <br/>
who is sorry and who is sorry. <br/>
My wretched soul that torments itself <br/>
in this fire it consumes itself and is silent.|Ferrandino d'Aragona, strambotto.}}