Introduction: Investigating Landscapes around “Ariosto and the Arabs”

This is the introductory essay to the volume Ariosto and the Arabs: Contexts for the Orlando Furioso, which presents the results of a long research project, which entailed a seminar and then a conference at Villa I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Within an interdisciplinary framework that includes contributions from the fields of Italian literature, Arabic literature, Renaissance history, Renaissance art, Islamic art, History of theatre, the volume investigates the landscapes that is possible to reconstruct around the production of Ludovico Ariosto’s masterpiece, Orlando furioso, trying to place it in a new perspective at the heart of Mediterranean culture.