BOIARDO, MATTEO MARIA

(1441-1494)

Italianhumanistand poet, best known for his romance epicOrlando innamorato/Roland in Love. Boiardo was brought up atFerraraand at a castle belonging to his grandfather. He lived at the court of Ferrara, where he was a close associate of Duke Ercole I and served the prince as a military commander and regional governor. His early poetry was in Latin, but he also wrote vernacular pastoral eclogues and a book of love poetry modelled onPetrarch. His famous epic merges two traditional romance themes, the Carolingian and the Arthurian, in an account of the love of the hero Orlando for a Saracen princess. It draws on Greek, Latin, French, and Italian material from several genres. It had great influence on epic poetry in the following generations and inspired many sequels; theOrlando furiosobyAriostois the most famous of the latter.