Ariosto and Boiardo
Ariosto's poem is a sequel to Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in Love). One of Boiardo's main achievements was his fusion of the Matter of France, the tradition of stories about Charlemagne and paladins such as Orlando, with the Matter of Britain, the legends about King Arthur and his knights. The name Orlando is a translation of Roland from the 12th-century Song of Roland.
The latter contained the magical elements and love interest that were generally lacking in the more austere and warlike poems about Carolingian heroes. Ariosto continued to mix these elements in his poem as well as adding material derived from Classical sources. However, Ariosto has an ironic tone rarely present in Boiardo, who treated the ideals of chivalry much more seriously. In Orlando Furioso, instead of chivalric ideals, no longer alive in the 16th century, a humanistic conception of man and life is vividly celebrated under the appearance of a fantastical world.
Read more about this topic: Orlando Furioso