Orlando in love

Brigna Baptistery Edition (Venice, 1665).

Orlando innamorato painted by an anonymous artist (1495).

Orlando innamorato (Orlando in Love) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441–1494) in 1486. It is a romance that deals with the journeys of the heroic knight Orlando in which he starts from medieval epic traditions both with a Carolingian theme (Song of Roland), of a warrior type, and those with a Breton or Arthurian theme, of a more courteous and chivalrous type. The poem is written in the strophic rhythm called eighth real.

The poem consists of three books, the last of which was left unfinished by Boiardo's death.

The protagonist of the poem, Orlando (Roldán, knight of Charlemagne's court), is not here an epic hero who dedicates himself to war and for whom love is one more element, but with the stylization that Boiardo gives to Roldán's theme, love is a form of courtly idealism, chivalry and heroism. The beauty of the lady Angelica leads several gentlemen to go after her, while multiple incidents take place, many of a fantastic nature.

Orlando's exploits were continued in the book Orlando furioso, by the Italian Ludovico Ariosto in 1516. In Spanish, the episodes recounted in the Orlando innamorato served as inspirational material for the book of chivalry by Pedro López de Santa Catalina Espejo de caballerías.

External references

• Orlando in love with the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
• Boiardo, the "Orlando" and other texts in Letteratura.it (in Italian).