Orlando Innamorato

Orlando Innamorato - Matteo Maria Boiardo. A translation into English by A. S. Kline. Illustrated edition.

Matteo Maria Boiardo (1440-1494), the son of Giovanni di Feltrino and Lucia Strozzi, ranked as a member of the nobility as Count of Scandiano, his birthacquiring knowledge of Latin, Greek and other languages, and becoming a doctor of law and philosophy. He found favour with Borso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (d.1471) and his successor, Ercole d’Este, both patrons of the arts. He married Taddea Gonzaga in 1472, and in 1473 he was a member of the retinue that escorted Eleonora of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand I, to meet Ercole, her spouse, at Ferrara. Five years later Boiardo was invested with the governorship of Reggio, an office which he filled with noted success till his death, except for a brief interval (1481–86) when he was governor of Modena.

His minor literary works, pursued from his youth upwards, consisted of love poetry in imitation of Petrarch, adaptations of Herodotus, Apuleius, and others, and a set of eclogues. He is, however, best known for his unfinished romance ‘Orlando Innamorato’ (or ‘Orlando in Love’), published posthumously in 1495, which recounts the love story of Angelica (daughter to the king of Cathay) and the knights Orlando and Rinaldo. The work borrows its setting from the 11th Century ‘Chanson de Roland’, written in Old French, which tells of the death of Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux (Roncesvalles). Orlando is here an Italian version of Roland the Christian knight who, in the French epic poem, fights for Charlemagne in a battle between the Christian paladins and the invading Saracens. The historical battle in 778, was actually with the Basques, retaliating after the destruction of Pamplona by Charlemagne’s army.

Boiardo's work was famously continued in Ludovico Ariosto's epic ‘Orlando Furioso’ (or ‘Orlando's Frenzy’).

Published by Poetry in Translation