The Orlando Furioso Atlas: A Digital-Cartographic Study of a Sixteenth-Century Epic

Abstract

This article describes the genesis, architecture, and scholarly and pedagogical implications of the Orlando furioso Atlas (http://furiosoatlas.com). Ludovico Ariosto’s sixteenth-century narrative poem, the Orlando furioso, represents the epitome of the Renaissance romance epic genre. This Digital Humanities project aims to translate cartographically the Furioso through the creation of interactive maps for each of the poem’s 46 cantos. This initiative in literary mapping is but the latest in a long tradition of visual and cartographic illustrations of the Furioso meant to supplement and elucidate the poem, helping readers to visualize and interpret the many intricately woven narrative strands and the vast geographic space that make up this dizzyingly complex work. The characters’ travels are traced onto Martin Waldseemüller’s contemporaneous world map that portrays a worldview in flux, facilitating an understanding of the interaction of the real and the fantastic in the poetic text, in the cartographic text, and in readers’ imaginations. The fundamental role of student research assistants in the creation of this project, as well as the role of this and similar projects in maintaining a place for Italian Studies at the heart of the liberal arts college and the humanities at large, are also discussed.