page_title: Ludovico Ariosto
section_title: New patronage and diplomatic career
hierarchical_section_title: Ludovico Ariosto / New patronage and diplomatic career
context_page_description: Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso. The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots. The poem is transformed into a satire of the chivalric tradition. Ariosto composed the poem in the ottava rima rhyme scheme and introduced narrative commentary throughout the work.
  Ariosto also coined the term "humanism" for choosing to focus upon the strengths and potential of humanity, rather than only upon its role as subordinate to God. This led to Renaissance humanism.
context_section_description: The cardinal's brother, Alfonso, duke of Ferrara, now took Ariosto under his patronage. By then, Ariosto had already distinguished himself as a diplomat, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to Rome as ambassador to Pope Julius II. The fatigue of one of these journeys brought on an illness from which he never recovered, and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the Pope, who happened at the time to be in conflict with Alfonso.
  On account of the war, his salary of 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn altogether after the peace. Because of this, Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. He was appointed to the province of Garfagnana, then without a governor, situated on the Apennines, an appointment he held for three years. The province was distracted by factions and bandits, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister. Ariosto's government satisfied both the sovereign and the people given over to his care, however; indeed, there is a story about a time when he was walking alone and fell into the company of a group of bandits, the chief of which, on discovering that his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect due his rank.
  In 1508 Ariosto's play Cassaria appeared, and the next year I suppositi was first acted in Ferrara and ten years later in the Vatican. A prose edition was published in Rome in 1524, and the first verse edition was published at Venice in 1551. The play was translated by George Gascoigne and acted at Gray's Inn in London in 1566 and published in 1573, which was later used by Shakespeare as a source for The Taming of the Shrew.
  In 1516 the first version of the Orlando Furioso in 40 cantos, was published at Ferrara. The third and final version of the Orlando Furioso, in 46 cantos, appeared on 8 September 1532.
caption: Titian, A Man with a Quilted Sleeve, long believed to be Ludovico Ariosto
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