edited by Maria Bendinelli Predelli
English translations by Joyce Myerson, Amanda Glover and Andrea Saunderson
British Rencesvals Publications 6
Edinburgh 2013
ISBN 978 0 9519791 6 7
 
Gismirante and Madonna Leonessa, two of the cantari of the versatile Florentine poet and story-teller Antonio Pucci, are some of the earliest and most successful examples of these brief romances of chivalry in the ottava rima metre. They were instrumental in establishing the popularity of the genre which culminated in the great works of Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso. Gismirante is one of the first examples of Arthurian narrative in Italian, while Madonna Leonessa reflects a world similar to that of Boccaccio’s Decameron with its wry humour, irony and role reversals. Pucci’s narratives weave together old stories and motifs from medieval romance, tales of love, valour and adventure, with the realities of fourteenth-century Florentine culture and society.
This edition of the two cantari is the first to offer the reader the original text with a completely new translation into English and an extensive introduction to Pucci, his works and their place in the literary traditions of medieval Italy. It is designed for students of medieval Italian and European literature approaching the cantari for the first time, as well as those seeking to explore further the development of the genre.