Ludovico Ariosto’s epic romance poem was an Italian renaissance masterpiece that Casanova first read when he was sixteen and which exerted an enormous influence over him for the rest of his life. He claimed to read it two or three times every year and to know off by heart pretty much all 40,000 lines of it. The adventures of the protagonists take place over much of what was then the known world.
An account of the poem and a very impressive interactive map tracing the extravagantly complicated plot lines of Orlando Furioso can be found here.
The poem itself can be found here.
‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is freely available here.
Long form articles on Casanova’s life and times are freely available here.
#orlandofurioso #europe #eighteenthcentury #ariosto #epic #poem #casanova #chivalry #honour
