Dear colleagues,

 We are delighted to announce the first Italian Studies research seminar of the year. On Tuesday 24 November at 5pm Dr Maria Pavlova (Warwick) will present her recently published book, Saracens and their World in Boiardo and Ariosto (Cambridge: Legenda, 2020). Respondent: Dr Marco Dorigatti (Oxford).

Read on for a brief description of the book:

A ubiquitous presence in European chivalric literature, the multifaceted figure of the Saracen Other plays a vital role in shaping the knightly values and ideologies underpinning some of the most influential narrative poems of the Italian Renaissance. By combining historical research and close reading and bringing to bear a wealth of literary and documentary sources, some of which have never before been published, this book analyses portrayals of Saracens and their world in Boiardo’s Inamoramento de Orlando and Ariosto’s Orlando furioso.

Pavlova assesses for the first time the degree of realism in Boiardo’s and Ariosto’s representations of Islam and Islamic culture(s) and discusses the ideological implications of the two poets’ innovative treatment of their Saracen characters. She locates these and other fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century chivalric works within the rich, vibrant history of interactions between Italian rulers and their Islamic counterparts as well as within the centuries-long literary tradition, going back to such archetypal texts as the Chanson de Roland and the Chanson d’Aspremont.

 If you'd like to attend this book presentation (all are welcome), which will be held online via Microsoft Teams, please fill in this short registration form: https://forms.gle/Yyjcm1LKxvfuSAas6. The deadline for registration is 24 hours before the seminar. To register for the entire programme of Italian research seminars, please email Federica Coluzzi or Maria Pavlova. A poster is available here.