Morgante

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Morgante (sometimes also called Morgante Maggiore lit.'Greater Morgante', the name given to the complete 28-canto, 30,080-line edition published in 1483

romantic epic by Luigi Pulci which appeared in its final form in 1483; a now-lost 23-canto version likely appeared in late 1478; two other 23-canto versions were published in 1481 and 1482.[1] The work was commissioned by Lucrezia Tornabuoni.[2]

Portrait of Luigi Pulci

Based on popular

Battle of Roncesvalles
.

The last five cantos of Pulci's work are based on La Spagna, a 14th-century Italian epic attributed to the Florentine Sostegno di Zanobi.[3]

Lord Byron translated the first canto of Morgante in 1822. In 1983 the Italian-American poet Joseph Tusiani translated in English all 30,080 verses of this work, subsequently published as a book in 2000 by Indiana University Press.

Notes

  1. ^ a b See Lèbano's introduction to the Tusiani translation, p. xxii.
  2. ^ Tomas 2003, p. 44.

References