Orlando Innamorato

Orlando Innamorato [orˈlando innamoˈraːto] (Orlando in Love) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a romance concerning the heroic knight Orlando (Roland). It was published between 1483 (first two books) and 1495 (third book published separately, first complete edition).

To material largely quarried from the Carolingian and Arthurian cycles, Boiardo added a superstructure of his own making. As the plot is not woven around a single pivotal action, the inextricable maze of most cunningly contrived episodes are seen to be linked, first, with the quest of beautiful Angelica by love-smitten Orlando and the other enamoured knights, then with the defence of Albracca by Angelica's father, the King of Cathay, against the beleaguering Tartars, and, finally, with the Moors' siege of Paris and their struggle with Charlemagne's army.

The poem, written in the ottava rima stanza rhythm, consists of 68 cantos and a half. Boiardo began the poem when he was about 38 years old, but interrupted it for a time because of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479). He is believed to have continued till 1486, but then left the poem unfinished. The last verses say:

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