Orlando Innamorato

As the plot is not woven around a single pivotal action, the inextricable maze of most cunningly contrived episodes are seen to be linked, first, with the quest of beautiful Angelica by love-smitten Orlando and the other enamored knights, then with the defense of Albracca by Angelica's father, the King of Cathay, against the beleaguering Tartars, and, finally, with the Moors' siege of Paris and their struggle with Charlemagne's army.

meaning While I sing, Redemptor God, I see Italy covered in flame and fire.The first two books were published sometime between 1482 and 1483, most likely by Pietro Giovanni di San Lorenzo in Reggio; but all copies were lost.

In the meantime the Saracen king Agramante has invaded France with a massive army (along with Rodomonte, Ferraù, Gradasso, and many others), to avenge his father Troiano, previously killed by Orlando.

Orlando and Rinaldo duel again for Angelica, and Charlemagne decides to entrust her to the old and wise duke Namo, offering her to the one who will fight most valorously against the infidels.

The poem stops there abruptly, with Boiardo's narrator explaining that he can write no more because Italy has been invaded by French troops headed by king Charles VIII.

Furthermore, in 1531 a minor Tuscan poet, Francesco Berni, re-wrote the poem in an elegant and regular Italian, since in the sixteenth century the vernacular traces found in Boiardo's work were no longer accepted.

Another Renaissance poet, Torquato Tasso, borrowed many of Boiardo's epic conventions, although his Jerusalem Delivered does not use the Orlando frame.