thumb|220px|Luigi Pulci in a fresco by [[Filippino Lippi.]]

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

Life

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 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 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.

See also

  • Torre dei Pulci

References

Sources

  • Luigi Pulci / Links and some notes
  • Strabotti de Luigi Pulci Fiorentino From the Collections at the Library of Congress