The World Beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto

“This articulate, engaging, and well-documented study represents an important work of scholarship in its cross-cultural considerations of Italian Renaissance epic poetry.” __Prize Committtee Citation, MLA Scaglione Priize for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies__

This study offers a sustained examination of the presentation of eastern Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa in two of the most important chivalric epics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (1495) and Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516). Comparing the narratological strategies used to depict non-European characters in these stories, Jo Ann Cavallo argues that Boiardo’s cosmopolitan vision of humankind increasingly became replaced by Ariosto’s crusading ideology, which emphasized a binary opposition between Christians and Saracens.

Cavallo addresses the poems’ mixing of imaginary sites and the geographical reality of a rapidly expanding globe, contextualizing them against current events and concerns, as well as ancient, medieval, and Renaissance texts influential at the time. As the prize committee for the Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies noted: “This articulate, engaging, and well-documented study represents an important work of scholarship in its cross-cultural considerations of Italian Renaissance epic poetry.”

This study offers a sustained examination of the presentation of eastern Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa in two of the most important chivalric epics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato (1495) and Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516). Comparing the narratological strategies used to depict non-European characters in these stories, Jo Ann Cavallo argues that Boiardo's cosmopolitan vision of humankind increasingly became replaced by Ariosto's crusading ideology, which emphasized a binary opposition between Christians and Saracens. Cavallo addresses the poems' mixing of imaginary sites and the geographical reality of a rapidly expanding globe, contextualizing them against current events and concerns, as well as ancient, medieval, and Renaissance texts influential at the time. As the prize committee for the Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies noted: "This articulate, engaging, and well-documented study represents an important work of scholarship in its cross-cultural considerations of Italian Renaissance epic poetry." Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 13 PART ONE. Asia 33 Chapter One. Angelica of Cathay 33 Chapter Two. Gradasso of Sericana 48 Chapter Three. Agricane of Tartary 57 Chapter Four. Mandricardo, Son of Agricane 74 Chapter Five. Marphisa, Eastern Queen 82 PART TWO. Out of Africa 97 Chapter Six. Agramante of Biserta (Tunisia) 97 Chapter Seven. Rugiero (Atlas Mountains, Northern Africa) 107 Chapter Eight. Rodamonte of Sarza (Algeria) 124 Chapter Nine. Saracen Spain 135 PART THREE. The Middle East 151 Chapter Ten. Boiardo’s Noradino in Cyprus 151 Chapter Eleven. Egypt: From Damietta to Cairo 166 Chapter Twelve. Jerusalem 177 Chapter Thirteen. Ariosto’s Norandino in Damascus 184 PART FOUR. Back to Africa 193 Chapter Fourteen. From Ethiopia to the Moon 193 Chapter Fifteen. The Destruction of Biserta 209 PART FIVE. From Cosmopolitanism to Isolationism 223 Chapter Sixteen. Boiardo’s Brandimarte across the Continents 223 Chapter Seventeen. Ariosto’s Rinaldo along the Po River 247 Conclusion 267 Names and Origins of Fictional Characters 275 Notes 279 Works Cited 331 Index 357 "This study offers a sustained examination of the presentation of eastern Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa in two of the most important chivalric epics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato (1495) and Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516). Comparing the narratological strategies used to depict non-European characters in these stories, Jo Ann Cavallo argues that Boiardo's cosmopolitan vision of humankind increasingly became replaced by Ariosto's crusading ideology, which emphasized a binary opposition between Christians and Saracens."-- From Publisher's website