Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, by Sr. John Harington of bathe knight

Title

Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, by Sr. John Harington of bathe knight

Book 1 - 51 of John Harington's English translation of Orlando-Furioso.Book Orlando Furioso by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto first in print. Based on the French Chanson de Roland, Ariosto told the fantastic adventures of a knight of Charlemagne, Roland (Orlando), and his companions. The main stories are about Orlando, driven mad by his unrequited love for Angelica, and the Christian warrior Bradamante, who falls in love with the Muslim hero Ruggiero. Many other subplots and minor characters fill the pages, making the work one of the longest poems of the Renaissance. “Orlando Furioso experiments wildly with tradition, stretching the chivalric world to its very limits, undoing its heroes, demolishing their beliefs, mocking their shortcomings... All its characters are uncharacteristically fallible and surprisingly human. And even if these heroes remain firmly embedded in a dazzlingly fantastic and chronologically remote dimension, Ariosto uses them to talk frankly to us, his readers, about our own desires and obsessions, our own failures and flaws, our own humanity." -- Dr. Claudia Rossignoli. Orlando Furioso was also one of the most popular literary works in 16th century Europe. After its first printing in 1516, hundreds of further editions appeared, many of which were profusely illustrated. The work was already known in England in the original Italian and in a French translation when Sir John Harington (1561-1612) published the first complete English translation in 1591. In 1607, Harington brought out a new edition, which contained various revisions and additions.

ca. 1607

Artist

Ludovico