Book Series Cursor Mundi, vol. 29

Luigi Pulci in Renaissance Florence and Beyond

New Perspectives on his Poetry and Influence

James K. Coleman, Andrea Moudarres (eds)

  • Pages: 239 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Language(s):English, Italian
  • Publication Year:2018

  • € 85,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-57439-4
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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-57440-0
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A comprehensive volume of collected essays on Luigi Pulci, the most popular poet of Quattrocento Florence.

Review(s)

« Ce recueil d’études présente une relecture du personnage de Luigi Pulci, de son temps, et de l’influence que l’auteur a exercé sur sa postérité, avec une rigueur philologique généralisée, liée à une perspective pluridisciplinaire et à une bibliographie scientifique actualisée. » (Amanda G. Madden, in Renaissance and Reformation, 41/4, 2018, p. 226)

“The volume represents an important collection of studies and makes clear (as is rightly declared by the editors in the exemplary introduction) how, in Pulci, the interplay between biography and writing is remarkably strong.” (Alessandro Polcri, in Renaissance Quarterly, LXXII/3, 2019, p. 1135)

Summary

Luigi Pulci’s rollicking, ribald account of the exploits of the paladin Orlando and his giant friend Morgante has never failed to provoke strong reactions in its readers. Pulci’s irreverent satirical wit made his Morgante an instant bestseller following its initial publication, but also drew the ire of powerful enemies like the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who called for copies to be burned in the ‘bonfires of vanities’ organized by his followers in Florence. The Morgante is the most important immediate precursor to the Orlando innamorato and the Orlando furioso, yet relatively little critical attention has been devoted to Pulci’s work compared to that of his successors Boiardo and Ariosto.

This volume – the first collection of critical essays dedicated to Pulci – offers a comprehensive reassessment of Pulci’s work and legacy, shedding new light on the cultural and literary traditions that Pulci draws from and subverts, the social and political forces that shaped Pulci’s work, and the breadth of Pulci’s influence from the Renaissance to the present day.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction - JAMES COLEMAN AND ANDREA MOUDARRES

Tra autobiografia e confessione - MARCO VILLORESI

The Devil and the Mirror: Pulci’s Theology - GIUSEPPINA PALMA

The Tenzone between Matteo Franco and Luigi Pulci in the Context of Renaissance Vituperium: Notes on Language and Intertextuality - MICHELANGELO ZACCARELLO

Rhetoric of Insult in Luigi Pulci’s Morgante - ALESSIO DECARIA

‘… e tutto il prato di pecore è pieno’ (Morgante XX. 37). Dalla similitudine alla metafora’ - MARIA CRISTINA CABANI

La morte di Orlando nel Morgante - STEFANO CARRAI

Luigi Pulci and the Invention of Renaissance Irreverence - LINDA CARROLL

The Ideological Battle of Roncevaux: The Critique of Political Power from Pulci’s Morgante to Sicilian Puppet Theater Today - JOANN CAVALLO

Index of Names