Rosanne said:
I have been struggling with italian sites that don't have translation
1468 the Tournaments when he was 19- he won a silver? helmet with Mars on it.
Christoforo Landini was still his poetry teacher.
1469 Pageant for when he got married.
1478 His brother was murdered
In 1447 there was a ban on Carnival that Lorenzo changed in 1479
It is then he is thought to have written the Triumph poem of Bacchus.
Then came the sonnets? The liturgical ones were for his Mother before he was married- at the same time his bawdy ones were written. I cannot find a date for the Triumph of Bacchus in Florence streets.
Thats as best as I can work it out.
~Rosanne
Well, the factual life - at least the details - often exists only in Italian language and I've my trouble with this, too. A lot of the easy available older English reports are "written in tendency", an endless dream of idealization, which doesn't look deep enough.
Well , the carnival ... I can't really imagine, that it was changed so late from prohibition to legal (1479 ? 1469 seems logical). But I was surprized yesterday by reading, that the Bacchus song is said to have been from 1491). But ... in Rome carnival was celebrated in the late 60's under Paul II., so it's rather improbable, that Florence waited till 1479. Perhaps it was not allowed in spring 1479 cause the war, which happened by the murder of Giulio in 1478.
"1468 the Tournaments when he was 19- he won a silver? helmet with Mars on it."
This should've been in 6th of February 1469 ... but there are reports with contradictions. Perhaps it even was in in Milan ... .-) although I don't believe this. It was reported in detail by the poem of Luca/Luigi Pulci (Luca writing only the opening).
"Christoforo Landini was still his poetry teacher."
Might be a legend. Naturally Lorenzo learned from all and everything, and naturally everybody wanted to influence him and wanted to tell, that he was the teacher. Influence on the young poet was taken likely by Luigi Pulci, but naturally not he alone. The real teacher seems to have been a person with the name Giovanni Becchi (and he read Ovid with him and Giustini, a history author), also there are early influences on his musical talents in his early youth (inclusive dancing) of others. Latin came from other side. Since 1458 Lorenzo had a lot of time in Cafaggioli outside of Florence, and Pulci lived near .. but he was not a really teacher, more a friend and likely also accompanying the hunting adventures of the youth, which means, this meetings with nature.
De Facto in ca. 1474 Pulci was attacked by Matteo Franco (who tried with some success to get the ear of Lorenzo then) with the following words: "Gigi è inportuno, Gigi è fastidioso, Gigi ha pessima lingua, Gigi pazzo, Gigi arrogante, Gigi seminator di scandalo, Gigi ha mille defetti secondo voi, et nondimeno senza Gigi non si può respirare in casa vostra, Gigi è animella della vostra palle". In other words, he had the impression, that Gigi (= Luigi Pulci), although a person full of defects, seemed rather almighty in matters of Lorenzo till then.
When Gigi attacked Marsilio Ficino, Ficino did win the battle and Pulci left Florence for some time, without getting his position again later.
### 1469 Pageant for when he got married.
Yes, he got married this year and it was a great festivity.
### 1478 His brother was murdered
true
### In 1447 there was a ban on Carnival that Lorenzo changed in 1479
doubts, actually this can't have been so.
### It is then he is thought to have written the Triumph poem of Bacchus.
Then came the sonnets? The liturgical ones were for his Mother before he was married- at the same time his bawdy ones were written. I cannot find a date for the Triumph of Bacchus in Florence streets.
Thats as best as I can work it out.
There are problems to identify the time of his writings, generally. But he started early to write, in the 60's, in the Pulci times. When very young, he even is said to have written 2 choreographies, which appeared in a book, dedicated 1463. A dance to "Love" (or Venus) and a dance to "Laura" (whereby "Laura" is the female form of "Lorenzo").
The mother had this sense for writing poetry and she likely had the command about all these "teachers".
Somewhere I had found a text, whose author seemed to have insights about his literary activities and who tried plausible datings ... somewhere at books.google.com ... Lost for the moment.
But most text are likely only available in Italian and to read Italian poems is difficult, much more difficult than usual texts.
