Luca Cubeddu

Gian Pietro Cubeddu, better known by the name of Luca, was the author of poetic compositions with a classical, pastoral or rural setting, which recall the poetry of the Baroque current of Arcadia.
He was born in Pattada in 1748 and carried out his religious studies in Tempio at the Scolopi Institute. He was ordained priest within this same order and assumed the role of institute and teacher of grammar. The priest's disposition, however, was rather lively and, fed up with the monotonous life of the Tempio institute, Cubeddu obtained permission to tour the headquarters of the Scolopi in Sardinia. At the same time, he discovered a good predisposition for both impromptu and written poetry. His inner rebellion against the order that had welcomed him was sublimated precisely in Sardinian poetry, which became much more than a pastime for him: a reason for living. With Cubeddu we begin to speak through Sardinian poetry of the so-called “Arcadia”, or the tendency to survive in Sardinia of fixed styles and models, in metrics and topics, with a classical, pastoral or rural setting. A crystallization that, in the context of the poem “in limba”, will influence the centuries to come. Among his best-known works, as for Pisurzi, the poems with a moral background that take up ancient fables or classic themes of moral edification have survived over time. Among the most famous titles are “Su cucu e sa rùndine”, “Sa corrincia”, “Su Leone e s'ainu”, “Si fit a modu de ti onde furare”, “Ninfas sas pius belli”; among the most suggestive is Isculta Clori Ermosa. Father Luca Cubeddu died in Oristano in 1828.

Update

10/3/2025 - 11:56