Pietro (Piero) Pucci, a distinguished classical scholar who held a significant position for more than 50 years in the Department of Classics within the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) at Cornell University while maintaining a prominent standing among leading intellectuals in Europe, passed away in Paris on April 7. He was 96 years old. Colleagues and former students remember him as “one of the last of a generation” of classical philologists. Pucci’s openness to interdisciplinary approaches brought fresh insights to ancient texts. “Pietro was the epitome of an exceptional scholar and colleague, a European of the old school who exuded generosity and kindness throughout his life,” said Hunter R. Rawlings III, President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Classics (A&S). “As an inquiring philologist, he published extensively on diverse subjects and extended support to younger faculty members. We deeply miss his infectious laugh, his vision of what a professor should be, and his unwavering presence in the department. Classicists worldwide mourn his passing, a testament to the breadth and depth of his impact.” Pucci’s scholarly and cultural interests extended beyond ancient literature, and he moved in social and intellectual circles with renowned figures like Jacques Derrida and Michael Foucault, according to Frederick Ahl, Professor of Classics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow (A&S). He also counted the legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti among his friends. Pucci hosted a memorable visit by Pavarotti to Ithaca, which included a recital in Bailey Hall. “Perhaps, like the Roman poet Ennius, Piero possessed not just one but three hearts, nurtured by his proficiency in three ‘modern’ languages and cultures,” Ahl said. “In Piero’s case, one heart was Italian, one French, and one American.” “Pucci was an energetic and adventurous scholar of ancient Greek poetry and thought, producing a steady stream of books in three languages,” said Jeffrey Rusten, Professor Emeritus of Classics (A&S). “His works combined the philological rigor of his early training with innovative approaches to literature.” In 1989, Pucci collaborated with colleagues from Harvard University and the University of Lille to establish the graduate student-faculty conference on Greek poetry at Cornell, known as CorHaLi. It has since expanded to include six schools on both sides of the Atlantic and “continues to be a driving force for original research and creative insights,” said Philip Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Romance Studies and former Dean of A&S. Pucci also initiated a lecture series featuring distinguished classicists, generating intellectual excitement through his teaching, said Cynthia Chase, Professor Emerita of Literatures in English (A&S). “Pietro Pucci was both an erudite, old-fashioned scholar and a brilliant and original practitioner of literary theory, adept at reading against the grain.” Many of Pucci’s students are now esteemed professors of classics at universities in the U.S. and Europe, said Christos Tsagalis, Ph.D. ’98, Professor of Philology at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. “Through his example, his profound knowledge of antiquity, his love for Greece, his balanced and philosophical worldview, and his charming Italian temperament, he continued to teach his students until the very end,” Tsagalis said. “His students have lost a remarkable teacher and friend, and classical philology mourns the loss of one of the last great philologists of a generation that blended wisdom with generosity and an aristocratic view of intellectual life with a democratic and respectful treatment of others.” “Pietro Pucci’s life as an academic was exemplary until the very end,” said Laurent Dubreuil, Professor of French, Francophone, and Comparative Literature (A&S). “He remained fully dedicated to the task of renewing meaning through interpretation, while maintaining a benevolent interest in the newer generations of thinkers, artists, colleagues, and students.” Pietro Pucci was born in Modena, Italy, in November 1927. His education in ancient Greek and Latin began at the Liceo Classico Muratori in Modena. He studied classical literature at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and then in Florence with the renowned Hellenist Giorgio Pasquali. In the early 1950s, he embarked on his academic career at the University of Florence. After Pasquali’s passing, Pucci moved to North America, teaching at the University of Ottawa from 1952 to 1961 and the University of Kansas from 1961 to 1962. In 1962, he joined Cornell University, where he remained a member of the Department of Classics faculty until his retirement in 2015. He continued to be active as the Goldwin Smith Professor of Classics Emeritus. Pucci’s research contributions to classical philology (the study of the structure and history of ancient languages) include detailed commentary and annotation of texts, ancient Greek metrics, textual criticism, and hermeneutical analysis. “Pucci embarked on a systematic effort to illuminate the underlying components of ancient Greek literature,” Tsagalis said. Pucci published books and articles on Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, and Xenophon. He remained an active scholar post-retirement, publishing his last monograph, “The Iliad – the Poem of Zeus,” in 2018 and co-authoring a book in French, “La Parole au Miroir,” in 2022. Pucci’s contributions to classical literature were widely recognized, earning him visiting professorships at the Universities of California, Florence, and Princeton. He was a fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Academy in Rome. A celebration of Pucci’s life was held in Paris on April 11. Cornell colleagues were among those who paid tribute. Pucci is survived by his wife, Jeannine Routier-Pucci, retired senior lecturer in Romance Studies; two children from his first marriage; and four grandchildren.
Pietro Pucci, Influential Classical Scholar, Dies at 96
