A scholarly edition of a work by Ludovico Ariosto. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), one of Italy's greatest poets, was a leading figure of sixteenth-century Italian humanism. After some years working in the household of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, to whom he dedicated his dazzling romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516), Ariosto settled in Ferrara under the patronage of Ippolito's brother Alfonso. He continued to write throughout his life, publishing 214 letters, five plays, seven satires in verse, and dozens of lyric poems in Italian and Latin. Ariosto's Latin poems, translated into English for the first time in this volume, are remarkable for their erudition, technical virtuosity, and playfulness. This edition provides a new Latin text, the first to be based on a collation of the autograph manuscript and editio princeps, and offers a unique insight into the Latin formation of one of the Renaissance's foremost vernacular writers.

The only unabridged prose translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso--a witty parody of the chivalric legends of Charlemagne and the Saracen invasion of France--this version faithfully recaptures the entire narrative and the subtle meanings behind it.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.