Birthday: Ludovico Ariosto

Le donne, i cavallier, l'arme, gli amori,
le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto,
che furo al tempo che passaro i Mori
d'Africa il mare, e in Francia nocquer tanto,
seguendo l'ire e i giovenil furori
d'Agramante lor re, che si diè vanto
di vendicar la morte di Troiano
sopra re Carlo imperator romano.

Of dames, of knights, of arms, of love’s delights,
Of courties, of high attempts I speak,
Then when the Moors transported all their might
On Afric seas, the force of France to break;
Incited by the youthful heat and spite
Of Agrament their king, that vowed to wreak
The death of King Tayano, lately slain,
Upon the Roman Emperor Charlemagne.

—Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Canto I, I,

Sir John Harrington trans. (A Midland Book, 1963)

The real wonder about Ariosto’s poetry is how he found time to do it at all. The eldest of 10 children, his father died when he was 24, leaving him the head of the family. He took service under Cardinal Ippolito (I) d'Este, and later under the Cardinal’s brother, the duke. He spent most of the rest of his life scribbling his manuscripts in odd corners of space and time. By the time of his death in 1553, he had indeed achieved recognition, not only for Orlando, but also for a miscellany of satires, stage comedies and other works.

Ludovico Ariosto, born September 8, 1474, Reggio Emilia, Italy.Reggio Emilia, Italy.