1. Orlando Furioso (1516-1521-1532) by Ludovico Ariosto
Presentation by Franco Manai

2. Ludovico Ariosto 1474 – 1533

3. Orlando Furioso’s editions
Ariosto worked on Orlando Furioso for much of his life: when he died he was still busy re-elaborating it
Three editions: 1516, 1521, 1532
1516: 40 cantos, dedicated to Cardinal Ippolito of the Este Family, his employer
Composition started in 1504 as ‘complement’ to the Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo (end of the 15th century, unfinished)

4. 2nd and 3rd editions
1521 edition: Language was more polished, structure was much the same
Great success: Between 1524 and 1531 there were 17 reprints in different parts of Italy
1525: Pietro Bembo publishes Prose della vulgar lingua
1532 edition: 46 cantos
Style conforms to Bembo’s rules (from Petrarch)
More balanced
More use of parallelisms
Contrapositions
Symmetries
Regular tones and rhythms

5. Orlando innamorato (end of 15th century)

6. Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494)
Boiardo was part of the Estense court in Ferrara and had a humanist education
Wrote love poetry, Amorum Libri (books of love), in the Petrarchan style
Epic poem Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in love)
Two books plus nine cantos of a third book

7. Orlando in Love

8. Orlando Innamorto Orlando Innamorato by Boiardo:
Arthurian legend
Carolingian epic
Classical tradition of Homer, Virgil and Ovid
Complex narrative of love in its many forms
Celebration of Este family
Incomplete
Extremely popular in Italy in its time
Orlando Furioso by Ariosto
Continuation of Boiardo’s poem

9. Orlando in Love: first book
Angelica is sent by her father to ensnare the Christian knights with her beauty. The plan is to have them joust with Argalia, her brother, who has a magical golden lance. Things go wrong and chaos ensues. Orlando becomes besotted with Angelica and chases her to Cathay in the east. Orlando kills the king of Tartaria, Agricane. Charlemagne is attacked by the Indian king Gradasso and is saved by one of his paladins, the clumsy by nice Astolfo.

10. Orlando in Love: second book
Orlando and the other paladins return to France with Angelica to defend Charlemagne from the new invasion by Agramante, king of Africa
Muslims succeed in defeating the Christians in the Pyrenee mountains

11. Orlando in Love: third book
Charlemagne’s army retreats in Paris, where it is besieged by Agramante
Orlando and Rinaldo keep chasing Angelica
The magician Atlante confuses everything by trying to gain back Ruggiero, the Muslim who has fallen in love with Bradamante, Rinaldo’s siter
The poet (Boiardo) prophesizes that from Bradamante and Ruggiero’s marriage, the Este family will descend
The author dies, probably poisoned by his relatives, leaving the poem incomplete

12. Orlando Furioso

13. Orlando Furioso Resumes the story where Boiardo left off
Retains many of the main characters
Makes references to episodes of Orl. Inn.
Celebrates the Este family
Entertaining composition of epic stories and knightly adventures
Intertwines, like Boiardo, Charlemagne and Arthurian tradition
Ennobles them with motifs and styles from the classical tradition

14. The title Orlando Innamorato Orlando Furioso
Orlando in Charlemagne saga was a stern and severe hero
Becomes a knight in love, as a hero from the Arthurian stories
Orlando Furioso
Furioso: from Latin “crazy” (reference here to Seneca’s Hercules Furens)
Orlando not just in love, but crazy, furens, for love

15. Perfect fusion of the various elements from different traditions
Characters
RINALDO: Typical Carolingian hero, protagonist of feudal wars, dynastic fights and rebellions against Charlemagne, is immersed by Ariosto in the quasi- Arthurian atmosphere of the Scottish forests
ASTOLFO: Typical of popular poems about knights: bizarre, dandy and a boaster. In Ariosto he is a gentleman and knight, incarnation of the Renaissance man, seeking adventure, favoured by fortune, who gradually relinquishes his illusions and regains his own wisdom and heroic dignity

16. Background theme: War between the Saracens and the Christians, at the time of Charlemagne
Saracens guided by King of Africa, Agramante, have attacked France with the help of King Marsilius of Spain and two powerful warriors, the African Rodomonte and the Tartar Mandricardo
War goes through three phases:
Siege of Paris during which Rodomonte inflicts countless massacres
Christian counterattack, helped by British and Scottish armies led by Rinaldo: Agramante is defeated
 Saracens are defeated in a sea battle, paladins devastate Africa, destroy Biserta, the capital of their kingdom

18. Triple duel ends war on Lipadusa Island
Orlando defeats Agramante
Brandimarte defeats Gradasso
Oliviero defeats Sobrino

20. Main themes: 1. Orlando loses his mind
Action starts in Paris. Angelica, princess of Cathay, desired by Orlando and Rinaldo, escapes from Charlemagne’s battlefield
Orlando, the main paladin, perfect and invulnerable hero, forgets his duties, abandons the battle to follow Angelica
First of many pursuits in poem – and first of Angelica’s flights
Constantly threatened by love offers not only from Orlando and Rinaldo, but also from Sacripante, Ferraù and Ruggiero
Perilous adventures (kidnapped by a necromancer, falls prey to pirates from the island of Ebuda, is exposed to a killer whale)
Meets a wounded Saracen soldier, Medoro. She takes care of him, falls in love with him and takes him to Cathay

21. Ruggiero saves Angelica

22. The Deliverance: Ruggiero and Angelica

23. Orlando’s adventures Pursues Angelica Performs many heroic deeds
Kills the tyrant Cimosco who fought using an arquebus
Saves Bireno and then Olympia
Kills the killer whale in Ebuda
Fights Ferraù and Mandricardo
Kills Alzirdo and Manilardo
Saves Zerbino from imminent death

24. Orlando becomes furious
Arrives where Angelica and Medoro’s love first flowered
Is caught by a sudden folly
Runs around the world naked, destroying everything he encounters
His cousin Astolfo goes to the moon to retrieve his mind
Is cured of his madness and love
Resumes his place in battle and kills the enemy king, Agramante, in the final triple duel

27. Final scene of the poem Set in Paris
Epic atmosphere modelled on final scene of Virgil’s Aenead
Last duel Rodomonte, supreme champion of the Saracens, is killed by Ruggiero, Saracen converted to Christianity for the love of Bradamante, Christian warrior and sister of Rinaldo

28. Main themes 2: Love between Bradamante and Ruggiero
Bradamante and Ruggiero’s descendants will found the Este family
Happy ending but only after a series of complications:
Magician, Atlante, Ruggiero’s mentor, uses spells and charms to prevent Ruggiero from becoming a Christian
Keeps him captive in enchanted castle
Hands him over to the beautiful Alcina
Bradamante’s parents want to marry her off to the Emperor of Constantinople, Leone

29. Main themes intertwine
Themes develop and progressively accentuate the most serious and profound motivations for life:
Orlando conquers his mind again
Ruggiero frees himself from Atlante’s charms, Alcina’s temptations and in particular his internal desire for love and adventure, in order to take hold of his destiny
Themes are interlaced with many other stories in a complex but controlled plot
Stories follow one another according a studied variety of registers

30. Love stories Obsessive love of Orlando for Angelica
Angelica’s sudden love for Medoro
The faithful love – sometimes courtly in manner, sometimes more bourgeois – of Bradamante for Ruggiero
The heroic and chaste love of Isabella, who sacrifices herself for Zerbino
The conjugal love of Fiordiligi and Brandimarte
The constancy of Olympia
The instinct of Rodomonte that becomes ferocity
The volubility of Doralice
The friendship love of Cloridano and Medoro

31. Many different episodes
Fairy tale: Norandino and Lucina
Grotesque: the homicidal women, the thief Brunello, the adventures of Gabrina, the story of Marganorre

32. Rinaldo and the Magician of Assalone

33. Rinaldo abandons Armida

34. Episodes
Grotesque episodes are often linked to Marfisa, the warrior woman, sister of Ruggiero, a sour and bizarre character
Allegorical episodes:
Discordia (Conflict) goes into the field of Agramante to incite conflict among the people
Rinaldo is assaulted by Jealousy and saved by Sdegno (Disdain)

35. Reference to contemporary history
16th century countryside
Castles
Echoes of battles
Diplomatic missions
Heroic actions
Delicate courtly conversations
Author’s comments and asides
Pauses that slow down and increase the already slow and ample time of the narration

36. Orlando loses his mind
One protagonist, Orlando, connected with the stories of other characters
Orlando meets characters he knows, but they do not recognise him
Orlando come across Angelica on her way to Cathay with Medoro
Scene when Orlando becomes mad, chosen with expert irony
A locus amoenus and pastoral, usually is the Arcadic backdrop to a happy love or melancholy love
Same place where love between Angelica and Medoro first bloomed
Place where the green and intertwined vegetation made them link in love
For Orlando becomes a place of torture
Background to his folly

37. Orlando’s folly Abandons the haunts of civilisation
Becomes a savage in the forest, a beast in his attire and behaviour
Phases of his folly:
 1: Discovers that Angelica belongs to Medoro
Goes into denial, tries to find alternative explanations to deceive himself
2: When can no longer deny the truth
Obsessive contemplation of the places and testimonies of Angelica’s love
Passivity, immobility, silence

38. Orlando’s Folly

39. Orlando’s folly 3: Extreme attempt to deceive himself
Takes lodgings in the same house where Angelica and Medoro’s love was consummated
Sleeps in torment in the same bed where Angelica slept with her lover
4: His repressed fury explodes and he vents his pain
5: Is inconsolable, becomes wild, transforms himself into a primitive and brutal being who screams and destroys all that lies before him
Meets – supreme irony – Angelica
Does not recognise her, and tries to destroy her
Angelica disappears thanks to magic
Destroys a mare (symbolically Angelica)