Ariosto is one of the founding fathers of ‘modern’ Italian and European literature, both for that grand invention that is the Furioso and as originator of regular comedy and a return to satire as a genre. His profile as a court intellectual, who lived with tension and effort the search for an autonomous space of his own to dedicate to literature, must be considered exemplary for the contrast between autobiography and prerogatives of the self on the one hand and membership of a collective and structured identity such as was the court of the House of Este on the other. His romance gave Ferrara a national dimension, it became a best-seller read and recognised as such, it broke with the canons of Aristotelian critics, it introduced themes from which there was to be no turning back in western European literature such as folly, relativism as to points of view on the world, the combinational nature of world events, the impossibility of controlling desire. His work contributes to the foundation of Italian Classicism and constitutes an example of refounding upon a new basis consolidated literary genres. His approach with the printing of the Furioso, the linguistic transformation in the Bembian sense (after Pietro Bembo) of the third edition of the Furioso and the themes countersigned by a discontinuity with recent tradition, show Ariosto’s ability at inserting himself as absolute protagonist into the flow of the new literature and the new civilisation of the Renaissance.

Looks at the cities and people in the life of Ariosto, within a space that is historically and geographically connoted as ‘Italian’ and ‘courtly’, with a division of characters that are ascribable to the sphere of the affections and education (children, brothers, Alessandra, the other women, teachers, intellectuals) and characters that are referable to the sphere of relations of a public nature (Cardinal Ippolito, Alfonso d’Este, Leo X, Isabella d’Este Gonzaga, etc.).

Analyses Ludovico Ariosto’s works as to form and content, highlighting the extraordinary ‘poetic’ and ‘theatrical’ aptitude of the author and his capacity for putting himself to the test with different literary typologies.

Over and above addressing the true and proper themes (madness, love, war, deceit, error, magic, etc.) this itinerary allows one to examine the ancient and modern authors that are at the basis of Ariosto’s literary identity and evaluate the author’s modus operandi towards his models.