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 internati ...
and
poet best known for his ''
Morgante'', an epic and
parodistic poem about a giant who is converted to
Christianity by
Orlando and follows the knight in many adventures.
Pulci was born in
Florence. His patrons were the
Medicis, 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''. 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' Medi ...
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. The subject was loosely derived from the
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
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
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' Medi ...
, 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. They ...
way of thinking and living, and free imagination are expressed in a language based upon the Florentine
dialect and extends from criminal
argot to literary or scientific Latin. This language is very far from the early
Renaissance classicistic model, proposed by
Poliziano 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]
See also
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Torre dei Pulci
References
Sources
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External links
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*
Luigi Pulci / Links and some notes''Strabotti de Luigi Pulci Fiorentino''From the Collections at the
Library of Congress
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{{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