Orlando Furioso

Lore & Background

Ariosto began working on the poem around 1506, when he was 32. The first edition, in 40 cantos, was published in Ferrara in April 1516 and dedicated to his patron Ippolito d'Este. A second edition appeared in 1521 with minor revisions. Ariosto continued writing and produced five more cantos in the 1520s, which he decided not to include in the final edition; these were published after his death by his illegitimate son Virginio under the title Cinque canti. The third and final version, containing 46 cantos, appeared in 1532. Ariosto sought stylistic advice from the humanist Pietro Bembo to polish the verse.

Reader's Guide

Orlando Furioso is one of the most influential works in European literature. It mixes realism and fantasy, humor and tragedy, and features a large cast including Christians and Saracens, soldiers and sorcerers, and fantastic creatures such as a giant sea monster called the Orc and a flying horse called the hippogriff. The poem's most important themes are Orlando's unrequited love for the pagan princess Angelica, which drives him mad; the love between the female Christian warrior Bradamante and the Saracen Ruggiero, ancestors of Ariosto's patrons the House of Este; and the war between Christian and Infidel. The poem influenced later writers including Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and Lord Byron, and is mentioned among the romances in Don Quixote. The first English translation by John Harington was published in 1591 at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I.

Did You Know?

• The poem is 38,736 lines long, making it one of the longest in European literature.
• Ariosto's work is a sequel to Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato.
• The story includes a trip to the Moon, where everything lost on Earth is found.
• The first English translation was published in 1591 at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I.