Luigi Pulci (; 15 August 1432 – 11 November 1484) was an Italian

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

best known for his ''

Morgante ''Morgante'' (sometimes also called , the name given to the complete 28-canto, 30,080-line edition published in 1483See Lèbano's introduction to the Tusiani translation, p. xxii.) is an Italian romantic epic by Luigi Pulci which appeared in i ...

'', an epic and parodistic poem about a giant who is converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

by Orlando and follows the knight in many adventures. Pulci was born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

. His patrons were the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...

s, especially Lucrezia and Lorenzo Medici, who often sent Pulci on diplomatic missions. Even so, sometime around 1470 Pulci needed more money and went into the service of Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona, a northern ''

condottiere ''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Euro ...

''. In 1478 (after the assassination of Lorenzo's brother Giuliano during the Pazzi Conspiracy), Pulci, riding on the coattails of the city's current anti-clericalism, wrote a poem dedicated to

Lucrezia Tornabuoni Lucrezia Tornabuoni (22 June 1427 – 25 March 1482) was an influential Italian political adviser and author during the 15th century. She was a member of one of the most powerful Italian families of the time and married Piero di Cosimo de' Medic ...

that fulminated against Pope Sixtus IV's Rome. His brother Luca Pulci (1431–1470) was also a writer. His brother Luca's works, all in the Italian language, include ''Pistole'', ''Driadeo d'amore'', and ''Cyriffo Calvaneo''.

''Morgante''

The poem ''Morgante'' is composed of 28 ''cantari'' (chapters) written in

ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The o ...

. The subject was loosely derived from the Carolingian epic tradition, but Pulci drew many characters and motives also from the popular poems usually sung by storytellers in Florence's piazzas and developed a rich series of comic and parodistic episodes. The work was commissioned by

, the mother of Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici. The poem in progress was read at the Medicis' court, where the public appreciated the funny characters, partly new, partly recreated from the epic tradition. Popular Florentine humour,

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. ...

way of thinking and living, and free imagination are expressed in a language based upon the Florentine

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

and extends from criminal

argot A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...

to literary or scientific Latin. This language is very far from the early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

classicistic model, proposed by

Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

in those same years in the Medicis' court. Baldi, Giusso, Razetti, Zaccaria, ''Dal testo alla storia. Dalla storia al testo'', vol. 1b, Paravia, Torino, 1999

References

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* *
Luigi Pulci / Links and some notes

''Strabotti de Luigi Pulci Fiorentino''
From the Collections at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pulci, Luigi 1432 births 1484 deaths 15th-century people of the Republic of Florence Italian poets Italian male poets Writers from Florence Diplomats from Florence

''Morgante''

See also

References

Sources

External links