coeducational state university at Naples founded in 1224 as a studium generale by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II to offset the dominant influence of the university at Bologna. Although universities were generally chartered after students had chosen to study in a particular place, Frederick decreed the existence of the university before any students or teachers had gathered there and then forbade his subjects to attend any other institution of higher learning. Thomas Aquinas lectured at Naples during the 13th century.

In spite of several attempts at reorganization, the university fell into decline and its existence was sporadic for two centuries, and itinerant until 1777, when it was reconstituted and moved to the Jesuits' convent, now a museum in the rear of the present building. The university was gradually brought under state control as a result of the Casati Act (1859), which formalized the state's responsibility for education, and the Gentile Reform of 1923, which centralized control of the universities under the Fascist government. The present university is state-controlled with administrative autonomy.