Orlando furioso: genesis and editorial history

The first composition of the Furioso certainly dates back to 1504-1505. We know for sure that Ariosto told a part of the story to Isabella d’Este Gonzaga in February 1507. On 3 February Isabella wrote from Mantua to her brother Ippolito to tell him how pleasant she had found Ariosto’s work. There are further references to the genesis of the Furioso in 1512, when Marquis Francesco Gonzaga exchanged letters with Ludovico from which we learn what punctilious work of correction the poet did on the gionta dell’Innamorato. The first edition of the Furioso appeared on 22 April 1516, in Ferrara, printed by Giovanni Mazzocco di Bondeno, probably in 1300 copies, of which Ludovico himself took care of the distribution. The book, in octaves, with a dedication to Cardinal Ippolito, was composed of 40 cantos, as opposed to 46 for the last edition. The work was an immediate success also outside Ferrara. A second edition of the Furioso was again published in Ferrara, but printed by the Milanese Giovan Battista Pigna, on 13 February 1521. Ludovico again took it upon himself to propagate the book, which he had in effect also in part financed. The number of copies printed in 1521 was fairly limited, perhaps a mere 500. In this edition Ariosto added 11 octaves, cutting the same number, and corrected 2912 verses on 32944. There was however no substantial transformation as compared to the first edition of the Furioso. Between 1524 and 1532 this second edition was repeatedly reprinted, but not under the poet’s direct control. The third edition was printed in Ferrara by Francesco Rosso da Valenza on 1 October 1532, in about 2750 copies, some of which on parchment. Ariosto made repeated corrections as the book was being printed. This third edition was substantially transformed from a linguistic point of view at the expense of the Padanian style and more in line with Petrarch’s poetic style, on the bases of the theories put forward by Bembo in Prose della volgar lingua in 1525. The genesis and the story of the various editions of the Furioso make of this work a ‘classic’ work in print, to be read widely.