Antonio Pucci

by

Maria Bendinelli Predelli

• LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2019
• LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2019
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0264

Introduction

Leaving aside Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio—the three exceptional figures of the Italian Trecento—Antonio Pucci (b. c. 1310–d. 1388) is perhaps the most notable writer of the literary Florentine landscape of that period. His abundant production includes an astonishing variety of genres and themes and reveals his alertness in tuning in with new trends in literary expression; his language is fascinating for its richness and spontaneity, and for its proximity to the oral means of communication; and his temperament reveals a passionate connection to the political and social aspects of his city. The scholars of the late 1800s studied and appreciated Pucci as a “popular” writer, one that expressed in simple and sincere ways the sentiments of the Florentine middle and lower classes, commonly pointing out, however, the poverty of his style and his absence from the incipient humanist revolution. In his overview of autobiographical, gnomic, political, and popular poetry (Critica 29 [1931]: 241–263), Benedetto Croce (followed by later critics) presented him as a popular journalist, thinking no doubt of the serventesi in which he narrated and commented the major events that marked the life of the Commune (e.g., the flood of 1333, the rise and fall of a seigneurial regime, various episodes of the war between Florence and Pisa, the plague of 1348). Over the last hundred years, a number of scholars have paid greater attention to his writings, collecting anthologies of his lyrics and providing editions of single works. Interestingly enough, some critical editions (Le Noie, Contrasto delle donne, Sonnets) were first produced in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. This critical attention also enhanced Pucci’s cultural status: scholars began to gather evidence of Pucci’s familiarity with Boccaccio, and highlighted his important role as a mediator between elite and popular culture. New editions of his cantari appeared, and new works were more or less persuasively attributed to him. More recently, Pucci’s writings have also been taken into account to explore issues related to gender studies, particularly in North America. To delve into Pucci’s writings, and correctly circumscribe them, a great portion of the research has been devoted to manuscript studies. The last section to this bibliography also includes a few items concerning the ways and milieux in which Pucci’s name and works persisted in the century after his death. Bibliographical items of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries are only exceptionally listed in this article, as they can be found in Speight 1954, cited under Bibliographies and Other Research Tools.

Bibliographies and Other Research Tools

Speight 1954 is a bibliography on Antonio Pucci that includes relevant citations before that date. Although “limited to material available in England,” the compilation is fairly accurate and comprehensive. On account of this article, the present bibliography includes only a few selected pre-1954 contributions. Two recently appeared digital research tools are relevant to Pucci scholars: the ongoing Corpus dei serventesi caudati, which accurately lists all the editions of Pucci’s serventesi, one of the main genres in Pucci’s production, and Crimi 2013, which, given the importance of manuscript studies for the full understanding of medieval writers, is useful in that it lists all documents featuring Pucci’s handwriting.

• Corpus dei serventesi caudati

  The work is part of the TLION project (Tradizione della letteratura italiana online). Searchable by various criteria (name, incipit, genre, etc.), the Corpus indicates the most reliable edition of every serventese, along with previous editions and relevant bibliography.

• Crimi, Giuseppe. “Antonio Pucci.” In Autografi dei letterati italiani. Vol. 1, Le Origini e il Trecento. Edited by Matteo Motolese and Emilio Russo, 265–275. Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2013.

  A list of all the archival documents and manuscripts where Pucci’s handwriting has been recognized. The information is available online.

• Speight, Kathleen. “Resources for Italian Studies: Possibilities for a Study of Fourteenth-Century Florence in the Works of Antonio Pucci If Limited to Material Available in England.” Journal of Documentation 10.2 (1954): 65–71.

  DOI: 10.1108/eb026203

  An accurate overview, listing the main contributions of Italian scholars between the 19th and the 20th centuries (D’Ancona, Wesselofsky, Biagi, Morpurgo, Levi, Croce). It includes items on the history and social life of the Italian Trecento.