Matteo Maria Boiardo – contemporary of Sir Thomas Malory and forerunner of Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Cervantes, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis – is best known as the author of the

Orlando Innamorato

[

Orlando in Love

], a poem in

ottava rima

organically merging Carolingian epic and Arthurian romance. He was also a lyric and pastoral poet, playwright, and translator of classical texts into the Italian vernacular.

The eldest of five children, Matteo Maria Boiardo was born to Giovanni Boiardo and Lucia Strozzi in Scandiano under the sign of Gemini, as he notes in one of his sonnets. He was grandson of the humanist count of Scandiano Feltrino Boiardo, nephew of the Ferrarese court poet Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, and cousin of the Neoplatonist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Raised by

2655 words

Citation: Cavallo, Jo Ann. "Matteo Maria Boiardo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 April 2008; last revised 07 November 2014. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=471, accessed 19 March 2024.]

471 Matteo Maria Boiardo 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.