It was founded in the tenth century by the Benedictine Order, but the Saracen raids of the time forced them to abandon the old monastery, located on the hill of Pizzofalcone, taking the relics of San Severino with them.

During the Angevin reign a number of important events occurred in this monastery, such as the convening of parliament in 1394 by the Sanseverino family, who were supporters of Louis II of Anjou.

Other painters active in the church comprised a polyglot series of artists, including Marco Pino of Siena, Benvenuto Tortelli of Brescia, Bartolomeo Chiarini of Rome, Cosimo Fanzago of Bergamo, and lastly Fabrizio di Guido from Carrara.

There is a long tradition of Tuscan artists residing in Naples, and was stimulated by the arrival of a group of master artisans from Carrara in the late 1500s, after the marriage of Alberico Cybo Malaspina and the Neapolitan Isabella of Capua, from the Duchy of Termoli.

[7] It also influenced other choir stalls and woodwork, including San Paolo Maggiore completed in 1583 by Giovan Lorenzo d'Albano (destroyed in last war), work in the sacristy of Santa Caterina a Formiello and S. Maria delle Grazie a Caponapoli (works by Martino Migliore), and finally the choirs in the church of Santi Apostoli, Santa Maria la Nova, and the Cathedral (1616) by Marcantonio Ferraro.

The nave frescoes and canvases were painted by Francesco de Mura, while the lateral chapels include works of the painter Marco Pino and the neapolitan sculptor Giovanni da Nola.

The third chapel, initially owned by 1541 by Marino Mastrogiudice (aristocrat and lawyer from Sorrento and president of a Royal Advisory panel, the Regia Camera della Sommaria).

The fifth chapel was assigned to the jurist Teano Gianfelice Scalaleone[10] and by 1598 to the Genoese jurist consult Francesco Massa[11] The sixth chapel was assigned to Francesco Albertini, juristconsult of Nola in 1549;[12] Below the church is the tomb of Giovan Battista Cicaro (c. 1507–1512), with an epitath written by Jacopo Sannazaro: Liquisti gemitum miseræ / lacrymasq parenti, / pro quibus infelix / hunc tibi dat timulum.

[18] The Sanseverino Chapel, dedicated to the body of Christ, was conceived by Ippolita de Monti, wife of Ugo and Countess of Saponara,[19][20] as a pantheon of the family.

[22] On the 16th century pavement, many tombs are found, including that of Belisario Corenzio, who died in a fall from the scaffolding while he frescoed the vault of this church.