La Spagna

La Spagna (English: "Spain"), also called La Spagna in rima is a 14th-century Italian epic attributed to the Florentine Sostegno di Zanobi and likely composed between 1350 and 1360 The poem is in ottava rima, composed of 40 cantos (or cantari) each of about 40 octaves. The work is an adaptation of the story of Charlemagne's battles in Spain and the adventures of his nephew, the paladin Orlando (Roland), including the tale of his mortal duel with Ferraguto and his ultimate death at Roncesvalles.

The material derives originally from the much translated and adapted Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle (Historia Caroli Magni, Book IV of the Codex Calixtinus, a Latin chronicle concerning the feats of Charlemagne from the middle of the 12th century). The story of the death of Roland is also treated in The Song of Roland. An adaptation of the Pseudo-Turpin material also occurs in the anonymous Franco-Venetian epic L'Entrée d'Espagne (c.1320; the author is thought to be from Padua).

La Spagna, which has been described by critics as "a darkly dramatic and often electrifyingly effective treatment of Ganelon's final treachery and Orlando's noble death", was an important source for the Italian romantic epics Morgante by Luigi Pulci (the last five cantos of Pulci's work are based on La Spagna), Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.

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