Saracens and their World in Boiardo and Ariosto by Maria Pavlova

Abstract

Reviewed by: Saracens and their World in Boiardo and Ariosto by Maria Pavlova Francesco Lucioli Saracens and their World in Boiardo and Ariosto. By Maria Pavlova. (Italian Perspectives, 47) Cambridge: Legenda. 2020. xiv+282 pp. £75. ISBN 978–1–781883–47–1. In the Inamoramento de Orlando by Matteo Maria Boiardo and the Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, Otherness is mainly represented by Saracens. However, as Maria Pavlova explains in the Introduction to her book (pp. 1–15), scholars have usually highlighted an opposition between Boiardo's admired representation of the Saracen world and its negative portrayal in Ariosto's poem, and have interpreted these different approaches in the light of the historical, political, and religious transformations that took place in Italy between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Pavlova aims to challenge this reading by reconsidering the close relationship between Italy and the Islamic world through an original postcolonial perspective, and by reading the two poems in the context of the literary tradition to which they belong. The first chapter (pp. 17–65) offers an in-depth analysis of how the Saracens' religion and culture were perceived and represented in chivalric literature and early modern Italian society. Through a close reading of the two Orlandos alongside French and Italian chivalric texts and in the light of the international relationships between Ferrara and the Turks, it is clear that Boiardo's and Ariosto's portrayals of the Islamic faith—as a false but not an evil cult—and their appreciation of Saracen culture, particularly chivalric values, are perfectly in line with both the previous literary tradition and the contemporary political interest in the East. The core of the book is then divided into two sections, with two chapters dedicated to Boiardo (pp. 66–126) and two to Ariosto (pp. 127–215). Both are preceded by an overview of the numerous Saracen characters included in the poems (also listed in the useful appendixes at the end of the book, pp. 225–46). The section dedicated to the Inamoramento de Orlando aims to highlight the intertextual nature of Boiardo's characters (many of the most important Saracens of his work come either from the Spagna or from the Aspramonte), even though 'the debt that Boiardo owes to the Italian Carolingian tradition is not limited to borrowed characters and names. He also appropriates themes, situations and stock characters, and in doing so, he often gives them a different meaning, subverting traditional stereotypes' (p. 89). Boiardo introduces new Saracen characters (such as Agricane, Sacripante, and Angelica) that are destined to embody the main topics of his poem—as well as of Ariosto's poem—such as love, honour, cortesia, vitality, and desire for glory, and also challenges previous chivalric works to reshape the dynastic protagonist Ruggiero, the Saracen to whom Boiardo attributes two ancient ancestors: Hector of Troy, to whom he is related through his Christian father, and Alexander the Great, to whom he [End Page 260] is connected through his Saracen mother, as explained in the Aspramonte. The section dedicated to the Orlando furioso begins with an analysis of the differences between Boiardo's and Ariosto's Paganìa (the latter is wider, as demonstrated by the inclusion of Sweden and Norway within the Christian world). Besides, through the Saracen characters—and particularly the new ones, such as Fiammetta and Isabella—Ariosto problematizes the topic of love, which was generally presented as a positive experience in the Inamoramento de Orlando. He also changes the representation of some of Boiardo's Saracens, such as Marsilio and Dardinello, probably following in this respect other chivalric texts (e.g. Andrea da Barberino's Aspramonte). These insights introduce a case study, namely the final duel between Ruggiero and Rodomonte. Through sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts dedicated to duels, Pavlova recognizes in Rodomonte the moral winner of this final confrontation because he remains loyal to his values, unlike Ruggiero, who, on the contrary, betrays his faith and his lord. This exemplifies the fact that 'at the core of the ending of the Furioso lies the theme of betrayal', which is again 'one of the central themes in the Aspramonte, a crucial text for both Boiardo and Ariosto...