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Ironic Geography in Ariosto's Orlando furioso

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2022

Daniel Leisawitz
Daniel Leisawitz*
Affiliation:
Muhlenberg College
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Abstract

Critics of the “Orlando furioso” have analyzed at length the poem's darker veins, lying just beneath its ostensibly sunny surface, where Ariosto comments on the violence and political, intellectual, and religious upheavals of the early sixteenth century, often through allegory and irony. Readers have also noted the text's meticulously curated geography that lends to the story world of the “Furioso” extraordinary breadth of scale and specificity of detail. This study identifies the poem's geography as an important locus of irony, both in service to larger allegorical programs and as a means of remarking on the contemporary revolution in geographic knowledge and cartographic practice.

Type
Articles
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , Summer 2022 , pp. 367 - 402
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by the Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

The research for this article was supported by generous Muhlenberg College research grants. I would like to express my deep appreciation to Ryan Sayre for his attentive reading and thoughtful suggestions on earlier drafts, to Jessica Wolfe for her supportive guidance, and to the anonymous readers for their constructive feedback. My thanks go most of all to Daniela Viale for everything.

References

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