Orlando Innamorato

Before Ariosto there was Boiardo, and in this riotously inventive Renaissance epic, chivalric honor collides with the chaos of desire. The poem opens with the arrival of Angelica, the ravishing daughter of Cathay's king, at Charlemagne's court, and her presence ignites a tournament that draws warriors from across Christendom and the Saracen world. But Angelica's true gift is chaos: she escapes, and the greatest knights of France abandon their posts to chase her through enchanted forests, into besieged fortresses, and back again. The centerpiece is the legendary fountain scene, where drinking from different magical springs inverts love and hatred with delicious irony, leaving Orlando, Rinaldo, and Angelica trapped in a cruel arithmetic of desire. Meanwhile, the Saracen king Agramante invades France to avenge his father, and the poem intercuts Orlando's lovesick wanderings with the gathering storm of war. Boiardo writes with feverish energy, mixing battlefield heroics with courtly wit, and his unfinished ending (Italy's invasion by French King Charles VIII interrupted him mid-sentence) only adds to the romance's peculiar urgency. This is chivalry deconstructed and rebuilt for a more cynical age, where honor and absurdity walk hand in hand.