"Landscape and Seascape: The British Isles and the Orlando Furioso"

Eleonora Stoppino

"Landscape and Seascape: The British Isles and the Orlando Furioso"

Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso, and English Culture

Since the earliest reception of the Orlando Furioso, the episodes Ariosto set in and around the British Isles have fascinated readers and inspired iconic artistic depictions. This chapter explores these episodes, focusing on Ariosto’s manipulation of the traditional chivalric seascape, descriptions of the sea and shipwrecks, on places and toponyms as producers of meaning in the British Isles landscapes, and on the 1532 addition of the episode centred on Olimpia, which can be considered a laboratory of narrative techniques, stylistic choices, and geospatial innovation.

2019