Matteo Maria Boiardo

Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

Born 1441
Died 1494
Activity 1463-1494

Places

Born in Italy
Active in Italy

Activities

Primary

Poet

Other

Humanist
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Playwright / Dramatist
Translator

Resources

Boiardo's Works

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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

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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 21 November 2024.]

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