Ariosto was in love. Well, what’s the problem? He wrote love lyrics but never authorized their printing. A literary knot, a true mystery for scholars...
Ritratto d'uomo detto l'Ariosto, 1510, oil on canvas, Tiziano Vecellio at the National Gallery, London
By Primavera Fisogni
Now we are in the condition to say that that vernacular lyric poetry is highly relevant in order to understand the Orlando furioso and the Satire. Thus, Italian culture owes a debt to Dr. Giada Guassardo, a young and talented researcher – Italian and Alumna of Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and Balliol College at Oxford, where she took her Ph.D. – who is author of the first monographic critical reading of the vernacular lyric poetry of Ariosto. As Gussardo wrote in her Ph.Dissertation: «The purpose of the thesis is to understand the relationship (both stylistic and thematic) between the rime and the context of lyric vernacular poetry of Ariosto’s time: I show how they are poised between fifteenth-century courtly Petrarchism and a more modern fashion, and furthermore bear the marks of a strong classical inspiration». Her investigations have been recently published in Italy both in Italian (Rime per il canzoniere, La Nave di Teseo) and in English (The Italian Love Poetry of Ludovico Ariosto – Preface by Lina Bolzoni, Olschki). It's a so complex, fascinating story that deserves to be known.
Giada, how did you get into Ariosto’s works? How did you arrive at Oxford to study an author of the Italian Renaissance?
I have been interested in Ariosto since I came acquainted with the Orlando furioso: from my first look at it I realised I was faced with a true mirror of the infinite variety of human nature, as well as (of course) an epitome of Renaissance culture. While in my MA in Pisa I began studying Ariosto’s works in more depth; then I moved to Oxford to continue my research for my PhD. The UK has an outstanding tradition in Renaissance studies and it was an extraordinary opportunity for me to scrutinise one of the fathers of Italian literature ‘from the outside’, adopting a fresh viewpoint and in a uniquely fertile research environment such as Oxford.
His love poems feature plenty of images and motifs which look back to the Quattrocento tradition: this old-fashioned style is probably something Ariosto ended up being unsatisfied with (while it makes these texts fascinating for today’s readers).
The Quad Garden, Balliol College, Oxford
Ariosto wrote love poems. What role does this production play in the work of the author of Orlando furioso?
A marginal role, as they seem to have enjoyed a relatively limited circulation (compared to Ariosto’s other works) even at the time they were composed. Nevertheless Ariosto never quitted writing lyric poetry: it is indeed a genre he cultivated throughout his life and career.
Alessandra Benucci was from a Florentine merchant family and had moved to Ferrara after her marriage to a gentleman in the service of the Estensi. She was in her thirties, and already a widower, when the slightly older Ludovico fell in love with her...
Why did Ariosto never authorize the printing of his love poems?
This is still debated. His love poems feature plenty of images and motifs which look back to the Quattrocento tradition: this old-fashioned style is probably something Ariosto ended up being unsatisfied with (while it makes these texts fascinating for today’s readers). Additionally, we may suppose that Ariosto conceived of his lyric poetry as part of his private sphere, to be shared with the woman he loved and his closest acquaintances. Among his poems one may actually distinguish between those prompted by some public or social occasion and those (indeed the greatest number) of a more intimate kind.
Who was Alessandra Benucci?
Alessandra Benucci was from a Florentine merchant family and had moved to Ferrara after her marriage to a gentleman in the service of the Estensi. She was in her thirties, and already a widower, when the slightly older Ludovico fell in love with her. The poet was always discreet about the identity of his beloved woman (to the point of never mentioning her name), for a variety of reasons including practical ones; nevertheless, the two shared a marriage-like relationship until his death and Alessandra was a constantly inspirational presence for Ludovico, as we glimpse from the allusions to her in the Furioso as well as his satires and, of course, his lyrics (several of which were clearly born in relation to her).
Palazzo Cresci, in Florence, a fresco by G. A. Fabbrini inspired by the Orlando Furioso
What tones and what shades did Ariosto use when he spoke about love?
He privileges a concept of love as a state of reciprocal joy and fulfillment — something he himself enjoyed —, as we argue, for example, from his heartfelt descriptions of meetings between lovers. But there are also poems on sorrowful or one-sided feelings. Ariosto was a keen and insightful observer of the love experience and describes its full emotional range, with a passionate and at the same time analytical eye. His take on love is also, throughout his entire oeuvre, tinged with irony. For instance, one may remember that at the outset of the Furioso he speaks of himself (comparing his state to that of Orlando) as the victim of insane, all-consuming love: a clearly hyperbolic statement, as in other passages he claims (conversely) to be in utter control of the subject matter he writes about.
Palazzo Paradiso in Ferrara, the town where Ludovico Ariosto died in 1533
You are a woman from Generation Z who deeply studied a poet from 16th Century. What kind of topics can bring your peers closer to the rediscovery of Ariosto?
The Orlando furioso develops as a network of interlaced plots which are captivating and easily readable. Most of all, it deals with topics that are extremely current (we even find some proto-feminist messages!) and sometimes, I would say, universal: see his reflections on human desires, hypocrisy, or warfare. This is why I believe it can be fully enjoyed also by the young. Regarding the love poems, what I find most striking is the realistic touch he brings to his descriptions (both the physical and psychological ones). It is in all respects tantamount to a ‘contemporary’ author and because of this he can still appeal to the modern reader.
Ariosto had been a courtier for many years: where? What novelties did emerge from your investigations?
Ariosto’s relationships with his lords and patrons have always been in the spotlight, but a figure that has received special attention in the last years is the Ferrarese cardinal Ippolito d’Este, for whom Ariosto long served as courtier. While Ippolito used to be blamed by historians and literary critics for his alleged carelessness about Ariosto’s talent, he has now been fully acknowledged as a fine and learned nobleman: the rime contribute to shed light on the courtly relationship between the two. Other interesting details have emerged concerning Ariosto’s connections to the Medici, the quintessential art patrons of the era, to whom he dedicated poems probably hoping for some reward. In fact the lyrics enable us to fully understand Ariosto’s approach to poetical writing and to place it within a historical context where literature also provided a means for gaining ground in society.
The Duomo of Florence
As a scholarship recipient at the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, in Florence, what are your current researches? And where does your work is taking you?
I am working as part of a team on a project that will result in an Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance. This involves multiple disciplines and aims to offer new perspectives on a number of outstanding issues and personalities of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. After being committed to a very specialised topic such as Ariosto’s poetry I am now dealing with a variety of authors and themes: it is a challenging experience for broadening my knowledge and supplying a solid basis for further individual projects.
© Rekh Magazine
Giada Guassardo (1992) graduated in Literature at the University of Pisa and was also a student of the Scuola Normale Superiore. In 2020 she obtained her PhD in Modern Languages at the University of Oxford (Balliol College) with a project on Ariosto. After receiving (2019) a scholarship from the Fondation Barbier-Mueller pour l’étude de la poésie italienne de la Renaissance (Geneva), since 2021 she holds a scholarship from the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (Florence). Her research especially focuses on the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian lyric tradition.