1011 



PULOAR, HERNANIX) DEL. 



PULSZKY, FEREXCZ AUREL. 



with all it* freedom of thought and expression, came out in 1481, 

 from the prew of the convent of Ripoli at Florence, and that tome 

 of the nun*, and one Marietta among them, acted ax composi- 

 tors, and were paid accordingly. (' Noti/Jo Iitoriche K>pra la Stam- 

 peria di Ripoli,' by Father Vincenio Fineschi, Domenicano, Florence, 

 1781 ) There waa a much greater degree of freedom in speaking and 

 writing in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries than there has been 

 at any time since ; the change took place about the middle of the 16th 

 century, when the alarm about the spreading of the doctrines of the 

 Reformation induced Tope Paul III. to establish permanently, with 

 the content of Charles V., the court of the Inquisition, which 

 effectually silenced both tongues and pent. 



The ' Horgante Mnggioro' is less read and noticed now even in Italy 

 than it deserres; the poem has many beauties; and great fluency ami 

 vivarity of diction, owing to the author being a Florentine and 

 writing in his own vernacular language. Pulci may be considered both 

 as tlie last of the old romancers and as the first of the Italian epic 

 writers. His poem retains much of the simplicity and antique cast of 

 tie traditions of the dark ages, enriched with the information of a 

 more enlightened period. By reading the 'Morganto' attentively, 

 one is lesa surprised at some old Florentine critics giving it the pre- 

 ference over Ariosto's splendid and elaborate poem. But the two 

 works are the representatives of two different ages, and there is the 

 same difference between them as there was between Pulci's jovial and 

 free-spoken friend, Lorenzo de' Medici, and the prince* of the house of 

 Kste. the courtly patrons of Arioeto. The edition of the ' Morgan!-,' 

 Naples, 1782, contains a good biography of the author. 



I'ulci wrote alto a number of satirical and some licentious sonnets, 

 and other light poetry, including his ' Confession,' the copies of which 

 are rather scarce. Pulci died at Florence in 1487. 



PCLOAR, HKRNAM )() DEL, a celebrated Spanifih historian, was 

 probably born at Pnlgar, a village close to Toledo, about 1436. When 

 still young he entered the household of John II., king of Castile, and 

 was educated as one of his pages. After the death of that monarch, 

 Pulgsr waa appointed secretary to Henry IV., his son and successor, 

 by whom he was entrusted with various confidential affairs. He 

 retained his place on the accession of Isabella, who, in 1482, named 

 him to the vacant office of national historiographer. From this period 

 Pnlgar remained near the royal person, accompanying the queen in 

 her various progresses through the kingdom, as well M in her military 

 expeditions into the Moorish territory. He was consequently an eye- 

 witness of many of the warlike scenes which he describee, and from 

 his situation at the court must have had access to the most ample and 

 accredited sources of information. That portion of his Chronicle 

 containing a retrospective survey of events previous to 1482, may be 

 charged with gross inaccuracy : but this cannot be said of the remain- 

 ing part, which may be received as perfectly authentic, and has all the 

 character of impartiality. Pulgar's style of narration, though rather 

 prolix, is sufficiently perspicuous, and may be favourably contra-tl 

 with that of contemporary write. His Chronicle waa first printed at 

 ValUdolid, in 1565, when it appeared under the name of Antonio de 

 Lebrua, among whose papers it was found by his grandson the editor. 

 Two years later (15C7), another edition was published at Sarogoesa, 

 with the real name of the author. The most elegant edition of 

 Pulgar' K Chronicle wag printed at Valencia, in 1780, by Benito 

 Montfort, in large folio. 



Pulgar left some other works, of which bis Commentary on the 

 ' Coplas de Mingo Revnlgo,' an ancient satire, in the form of a dialogue 

 between two shepherds, describing the court of John II., his ' Letters,' 

 and his 'Claros Varones,' or sketches of illustrious men, have alone 

 been published. The last contains forty-six biographical articles of 

 the most distinguished individuals of the court cf Henry IV., which 

 nlthough too indixcrimatelj encomiastic, contain much valuable 

 information on the principal actors of that period. Fourteen of the 

 Letters were first printed at Seville, towards the close of the 15th 

 century ; the whole number thirty-two were afterwards printed at 

 the same city, together with the ' Claros Varones,' 1600, 4to. Several 

 editions of the same two works were subsequently published, AlcaU, 

 1524 and 1528; Zamon, 1543 ; Valladolid, 1545; Antwerp, 1632; all 

 in 4to. The Letters only were afterwards translated into Latin by 

 Julian Magon, and published with the Spanish text, at the end of 

 PeUr Martyr's 'Epistle*,' Amstelodami, apud Kir., 1070. Of more 

 modern editions, those of Madrid, 4 to, 1775 and 1789, are valuable on 

 account of some excellent notes and their having a biographical 

 account of Pnlgar prefixed to them. 



Nicola* Antonio (' Bib. Nov.,' vol. il., p. 888), attribute* to him a 

 Chronicle of Henry IV., and a history of the Moorish kings of Qranada. 

 Other bibliographers have confounded this Pulgar with Hernan Perez 

 del Pulgar, a distinguished officer, who gained great renown in the 

 war of Ursnada, and who is supposed to be the author of a Chronicle 

 of Uonzalo de Cordova, Alcala, 1584, fol., as well as of a transition 

 of a French historical work, entitled 'La Mer de* Histoires,' which 

 appeared at Valladolid, in 1512, fol., under the title of -Mar de 

 HUtoria*.' 



The year of Pulgar's death has not been ascertained : it is probable 

 that he did not survive the capture of Granada by Ferdinand and 

 Isabella, a* hi* history falls somewhat short of that event. Besides, from 

 ome remark* in hi* Letters, all of which were written after 1482, it 



would appear that he was already at that time much advanced in 

 year*. It is however quite clear that Pulgar waa still living some 

 yean after 1486, the epoch which the 'Biographic Univenelle' 

 Las erroneously aisigned for hi* death. 



PI'LSZKY, FKKKXr/. AUUX. a conspicuous political character 

 in the Hungarian revolution, and a successful author in the German, 

 Hungarian, and English languages, waa born on the 17th of September 

 1814, at Eperiea, in the county of Soros. He is descended from a 

 Polish family which emigrated to Hungary in the 17th century, and 

 the : in his name is inserted in conformity with the ruler of Hun- 

 garian orthography, according to which, the sound which by the Pole* 

 and English is represented by the letter is denoted by the compound 

 .-:, the letter when it stands by itself in Hungarian assuming the 

 sound which in English is represented by A, and in Polish by K. 

 Pills Ay studied at Miskolcz and Eperies, and in 1833 pasted hi* 

 examination as an advocate. His uncle Fejervary, a celebrated anti- 

 quarian and collector of antiquities, afterwards took him on a tour to 

 Germany and Italy, and subsequently to England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland, in which he passed some portion of 1836. In the next year 

 he first appeared us an author in a German volume published at Pesth, 

 'Aus dem Tagebuche eine* in Grossbritannicn reisenden Ungs.ro' 

 (' Extract* from the Diary of an Hungarian travelling in Great Britain'). 

 The book is written with some spirit, but full of hasty and incorrect 

 remarks, such as that the fashions of drees in England are not M 

 to change, an observation which it shows some want of judgment in a 

 hasty traveller to hazard. The last essay in the volume is a com- 

 parison between England and Hungary, which concludes with the 

 remark, " Hungary has hitherto advanced slowly in the path of 

 improvement, resembling England in this, although unacquainted \\ith 

 that country, and there is still every reason to inspire us with con- 

 fidence, that it will never abandon this safe and le-.-al path even for a 

 moment." In Eotvoa's ' Budapest! Arviz-konyv ' [Eofviis], published 

 in 1839, Pulszky communicated some further observations on England, 

 and some on Germany, in a series of ' Uti Vazolatok,' or 'Travelling 

 Sketches.' He was chosen by the county of Soros it* representative at 

 the diet of 1840, and distinguished himself in the ranks of the opposi- 

 tion, being named a* secretary of a commission to draw up a code for 

 Hungary. At subsequent elections however he failed to obtain a seat, 

 and was obliged to confine his political activity to articles in the 

 newspapers, enjoying as the Hungarian correspondent of the ' Allge- 

 meiuc Zeitung,' or ' Augsburg Gazette,' a good opportunity of diffusing 

 his views in Europe. He was then one of the principal supporters of 

 the Hungarian Union against the purchase of foreign manufactures, 

 and it was in this character, as we learn from the ' Memoirs of a 

 Hungarian Lady, Theresa Pulszky,' his wife, that he first attracted in 

 the circles of Vienna the attention of his future bride, the daughter of 

 a Viennese merchant named Walter. After his marriage he estab- 

 lished his residence on an estate about sixty English miles from Pestb, 

 at a manor bouse called Castle Szecseny, where ho had under bin 

 management twelve thousand acres of land and six thousand sheep. 

 The uowa of the February revolution of 1848 roused him from his 

 rural repose. On being told the intelligence by his wife he replied, 

 " Next autumn our fields will no more l/o tilled by soccage, feudal 

 institutions will disappear in Europe." He hastened to Pth, w:i . 

 soon after named a member iu the Batthya'ni ministry, and in thu 

 month of May was appointed under-aecretary of state for Hungary at 

 Vienna, hi* chief being Prince Paul Eeterhazy. He made hini-i-li' 

 conspicuous by bis activity in the office, and on the 5th of October, 

 when the clash between Austria and Hungary was imminent, he 

 received an autograph letter from the emperor to inform him that his 

 "resignation wan accepted," though no resignation had been < 

 In the events which followed at Vienna, including the murder of 

 Latour, the Austrians asserted that they could trace the hand of 

 Pulszky, and when Windischgriitz became master of the city, there was 

 no one whom he was more anxious to secure. Pulszky, who has 

 always denied any connection with the death of Latour, succeed' d i-i 

 escaping to Pesth. He was entrusted by Koeauth with a mission to 

 London, to endeavour to prevail ou Lord Palmcnton to give some sup- 

 port to the Hungarian insurrection, and was thus away from Hungary 

 at the time of the final ruin of the cause. Ho afterwards urged the 

 Knglish government to support the Sultan in his refusal to surrender 

 the Hungarian exiles, but, a* may be supposed, little prompting was 

 required to ensure such a determination. Since Kossuth'a arrival in 

 England, Pulszky bos been understood to be his most confidential frii -nd 

 and adviser, and he accompanied the ex-governor on his memorable 

 progress through America. This tour he has described in tin- 

 volumes of travels in America, under the title of ' Red, White, and 

 Black ' (London, 1862) a work rich in entertainment and iufori: 

 and in which the observations on American society by Madame 

 Pulszky are particularly worthy of note. The husband and wife had 

 previously appeared in conjunction as English authors in ' Tales and 

 Traditions of Hungary' (3 vols, London, 1S61). the list two volumtn 

 of which are occupied ny a long and somewhat tedious story, n 

 ' The Jacobin* in Huneary,' which is hardly anything beyond a narrative 

 of the conspiracy of Martinovic*. Pulszky's last literary production is 

 a ' Catalogue of the Fejervdry Ivories, formerly in the collection of the 

 late Qal'ri"! FejiTVilry do Komlos-Keresztes, and now in the museum 

 of Joseph Mayor, Esq., F.S.A.,' Liverpool, 1866. 



