Though somewhat overshadowed by its celebrated sequel, the Inamoramento de Orlando (1495), also known as the Orlando Innamorato, is today considered one of the finest literary monuments of the Ferrarese Renaissance as well as a land¬mark in the history of the chivalric genre in Italy. Comprised of three books con¬taining 69 cantos in total, it enjoyed a wide readership from the publication of the editio princeps of the first two books (1483) to the end of the sixteenth century, both before and after its rifacimenti by Francesco Berni (1541) and Ludovico Domenichi (1545). And yet, despite its accessibility to a wide audience, it is far more sophisti¬cated than the works of popular literature from which it partly draws its inspiration. Its author, Count Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441–94), was an aristocrat, a humanist, an acclaimed lyric poet, and a close companion of Duke Ercole I d’Este. More than simply a chivalric romance, the Inamoramento de Orlando is an encomiastic work charged with political significance, a poem deeply steeped in both the vernacular romance tradition and the classics, whose hybrid nature reflects Boiardo's cultural background as well as the cultural climate of the court of Ferrara during the reigns of Borso I d’Este (r. 1450–71) and his brother Ercole (r. 1471–1505).

By the second half of the fifteenth century Ferrara was both an important humanist centre and a city-state which sought to keep alive the spirit of medieval chivalry, nostalgically clinging to the vestiges of its feudal past. A shrewd diplomat and skilful politician, Marquis Nicolò III d’Este (r. 1393–1441) strengthened and consolidated his small state, taking steps to transform it into a Renaissance princi-pality. Nicolò's court was open to French influences: he and his courtiers enjoyed reading French romances; his third wife and the mother of the future Duke Ercole I, Rizzarda da Saluzzo (1410–74), probably spoke French as her first language, and his children (Meliaduse, Leonello, Borso) were named after characters from Arthurian literature. Nicolò cultivated a close relationship with France, and in 1431 King Charles VII of France granted him permission to use the fleurs de lys in his coat of arms. The cordial ties established by Nicolò would be maintained by his successors, with Ferrara remaining closely allied to France not only in the days of Boiardo and Ariosto but also in those of Tasso.6 French culture and the new humanist culture