Note 102 — PIERO DI COSIMO DE’ MEDICI

Luigi Pulci was born in Florence on August 15, 1432, of Jacopo Pulci and Brigida de’ Bardi. His brothers Luca and Bernardo were also poets. and Bernardo’s wife Antonia was a poetess of some repute. Luca went into trade but failed, and died in gaol in 1470, leaving his widow and children dependent on his brothers. Luigi, an intimate friend of the Medici family, wrote La Giostra (sometimes attributed to his brother Luca) to celebrate the tournament held by Lorenzo de’ Medici in honour of the marriage of Braccio Martelli, but really of Lucrezia Donati just before his marriage with Clarice Orsini. The poem Driades was first published under the pseudonym of Lucio Pulcro in Florence in 1479, but the later editions bear his name. His greatest work, less read than it deserves, Morgante Maggiore, was, as Mr. Armstrong says, a growth rather than a composition. Stanzas were recited at table, and Lucrezia de’ Medici urged him to collect them into an epic poem. Besides being a poet, Luigi Pulci was an acute and clever politician, often employed by Lorenzo in missions to foreign courts. He died in 1484, probably at Padua whilst on the road to Venice.