Author: BOIARDO, Matteo Maria
Biography:
BOIARDO, Matteo Maria (1441-94: Encyclopedia of World Biography)
The eldest child of Giovanni Boiardo and his wife Lucia Strozzi, he was born in 1441 in Scandiano, Northern Italy. He was raised in Ferrara until his father’s death in 1451 when the family moved to his grandfather’s castle in Scandiano. His grandfather was a count and, after first his death and then the death of an uncle, Matteo became count of Scandiano in 1460. He began writing verse and was patronised by the dukes of Este, particularly Ercole I of Este who made him a courtier. In 1479 he married Taddea Gonzaga; they had five children. In 1480 he was appointed military governor of Modena and he later served in other official posts but Boiardo suffered from ill health and he died on 19 Dec. 1494. The third book of his great narrative poem, Orlando Innamorato, was unfinished at the time of his death. The poem influenced both Ariosto and Tasso and it was rewritten by Francesco Berni (qq.v.) It was Berni’s version, with its more literary language and refined diction, that became widely known and would have been the source text for the translations by Richard Alsop (q.v.) and an anonymous writer that are listed in this bibliography. In 1830-34 Antonio Panizzi (later principal librarian at the British Library) published an edition in nine volumes of Boiardo’s Italian original which had been long out of print. The first volume includes an essay in English on Italian romantic narrative poetry. (Encyclopedia of World Biography online 15 Apr. 2025; Leigh Hunt, Stories from the Italian Poets [1846]) SR