Abstract: This article deals with the way in which the collection of tales Novellae et fabulae (1520), written by the Neapolitan legist Girolamo Morlini, engages with the historical reality of the Kingdom of Naples, which was the prime objective of the expansionist project of the French and Spanish monarchies during the Italian Wars. Through a moralistic albeit obscene tone, in these tales the memory of the past, far from being nostalgic, provides ample room for political and social denunciation.