Meliadus, Rodomonte, il Mostro. Guerra e Assalto nel primo Furioso

The Inamoramento de Orlando and the Orlando Furioso are both firmly embedded in the age of the ‘Italian Wars’. They are, undoubtedly, because of contemporary events that conditioned their composition. They are also because of the particular structures of the fictional worlds that each of them put in place. While in the Inamoramento the beginning of real conflicts is said to be the cause of the interruptions of the narrative, the Furioso instead multiplies the layers of representation and allows contemporary reality to filter into the pure Boiardian fiction. A good example is that of the multiple attack against Rodomonte in Paris, for which an Arthurian model unknown to Rajna is indicated along with its mythical etymon – a figure that is variously echoed at other core moments of the plot.