The chivalric epic "Orlando Furioso" by Ludovico Ariosto is considered to be one of the most famous works of Italian and European literature. It consists out of 46 cantos and it was written in Italian using octave and hendecasyllable. It was firstly published in 1516 and it had 40 cantos. The author worked and changed […]
Lodovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian renaissance poet. He was born in 1474 in Reggio Emilia in Italy and soon his all family moved to Ferrara because of his father’s work. Since he lived with the nobility he fell in love with art and literature.
He studied law to please his father but he couldn’t finish it due to his involvement with literature and an easy going life he had in his father’s house.
After his father passed away he took care of his family by becoming an official of the d’Este family.
In the time span between 1503 and 1517 he worked as the secretary of Ippolito d’Este but he abandoned that place. He still stayed with d’Este family but this time, he worked for count Alfonso d’Este with whom he had spent his childhood.
Soon he became a governor and he has proven himself to be reliable, resourceful and calm.
He was offered other higher positions but he didn’t feel well health wise so he decided to decline the offers and work on his masterpiece “Orlando Furioso”.
Except for "Orlando Furioso" he had written comedies "Cassaria", "I suppositi" and "Il negromante" and a book of poems.
He died of tuberculosis in 1533.