LUIGI, a celebrated Italian poet, was born in Florence in 1431. His talents were fostered and developed under very favourable circumstances. A comfortable office in the Florentine republic was held by him. Lucrezia, the mother of Lorenzo de Medici, encouraged him in the cultivation of poetry. Lorenzo himself kept a place for him in that brilliant company who were wont to display the bright coruscations of their wit and genius at his hospitable table. It was under this propitious patronage that Pulci thought of composing an epic poem. Choosing for his subject one of the legends regarding Charlemagne and his paladins, he commenced to treat it on a novel plan. The prevalent custom of narrating the most ridiculous fables with imperturbable gravity, and in pompous medieval Latin, was repudiated. The ways and manners of ordinary life were introduced into the mysterious regions of romance. He looked upon the marvels there with familiar eye. He described them with the plain colloquial language of Tuscany, and in easy gossiping verse. Nor was his artistic treatment less guided by common sense. Whenever he alighted upon incidents that were natural and impressive, he warmed into earnestness and emotion. Whenever he fell back again upon the absurd exaggerations of the fable, he relapsed into his usual strain of banter and burlesque. The hero Orlando passed across the stage, and was pointed out as the model of a true and chivalrous knight. The villain Gano appeared, and was held up as an object of reprehension and righteous indignation. In this manner the Morgante Maggiore (deriving its name from one of its characters, the giant Morgante) was composed, and appeared before the public in 1481. After the author's death, in 1487, it continued to pass through several editions; and its character and merits were for a long time a subject of dispute. It still holds a place among the Italian classics.

Luigi Pulci was also the author of a collection of satirical sonnets, and of several other poems.