Why the greatest epic of the Italian Renaissance ends with a trip to the Moon.
In short: Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso is a masterpiece of irony and fantasy. It follows the paladin Orlando, whose unrequited love for a princess drives him into a destructive madness. To save him, a knight must fly a hippogriff to the Moon to recover the hero’s lost wits in a bottle.
Published in 1516, Orlando Furioso stands as the finest expression of Italian Renaissance literature. It serves as a sequel to Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato, picking up the interwoven threads of chivalric romance where the earlier work left off. While Boiardo focused on the serious ideals of medieval knighthood, Ariosto infused his epic with a distinct narrative voice, artistic detachment, and a playful, ironic tone that transformed the genre.
The narrative is vast, spanning the war between Charlemagne’s Christians and the Saracen army, alongside the complex romantic entanglements of its cast. Central to the plot is the female knight Bradamante and her love for the Saracen Ruggiero, characters who were intended to flatter Ariosto’s patrons, the House of Este. Yet, the poem is best remembered for Orlando’s descent into insanity after his beloved Angelica elopes with a wounded soldier. This frenzy is only cured when the knight Astolfo travels to the Moon—a celestial repository for everything lost on Earth—to retrieve the hero’s sanity.
Structurally, the work is a monumental achievement, eventually reaching 46 cantos in its final 1532 edition. Ariosto’s use of ottava rima and his ability to blend medieval folk traditions with classical influences created a work of immense cultural impact. By the late 16th century, the poem had reached England, where John Harington published a celebrated translation in 1591. The work remains a testament to the Renaissance spirit, where humanistic inquiry and fantastical adventure coexist within a sophisticated, ironic framework.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Orlando furioso | work by Ariosto | Britannica
- Also: Orlando Furioso
- Also: Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso
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