Orlando innamorato: an Italian graded reader at level A2

Glossary

amore · love ((sin. passione, affetto))

Il sentimento fortissimo che lega una persona a un'altra.

The very strong feeling that binds one person to another.

The force that moves the whole book: Boiardo put it in the title. But here love is never chosen: it arrives like a spell, in a single moment, and turns the strongest warrior in the world into a man who cannot sleep. Nobody is safe from it: not kings, not sages.

anello · ring ((sin. cerchietto, vera))

Piccolo cerchio di metallo che si porta al dito.

A small metal circle worn on the finger.

Angelica's magic ring: worn, it breaks every enchantment; held in the mouth, it makes her invisible. It is the single most powerful object in the poem: and it belongs to the person everyone is chasing. Ariosto inherited it, ring and all, for the Furioso.

armatura · armour ((sin. corazza, difesa))

Il vestito di ferro che protegge tutto il corpo del guerriero.

The iron clothing that protects the warrior's whole body.

The iron suit that makes a knight a fortress, and, once, a monster: Rodamonte scales the walls of Paris in armour made of dragon scales, drinking arrows like rain. Armour in this poem tells you who a man is before he says a word.

assedio · siege ((sin. accerchiamento, blocco))

L'accerchiamento di una città per costringerla ad arrendersi.

Surrounding a city to force it to surrender.

The siege is the poem's favourite shape: tents covering the earth to the horizon, a fortress breathing inside. Albracca first, then Paris: same image, sides reversed. Whoever besieges will be besieged: Boiardo builds his symmetries like an architect.

battaglia · battle ((sin. combattimento, scontro))

Scontro armato tra due eserciti.

An armed clash between two armies.

The great battle under the walls of Paris gathers every living character onto a single plain: and never ends. Every sword stops in mid-air, forever, because history interrupted the poet. No battle in literature has a stranger fate: it is still being fought.

battesimo · baptism ((sin. sacramento, rito))

Il rito con l'acqua che fa entrare una persona nella fede cristiana.

The rite with water that brings a person into the Christian faith.

Agricane, dying, asks his enemy for baptism with the water of the fountain beside them. It is the most solemn page of the poem: two enemies, one dawn, one gesture that turns a duel into something older and larger. Boiardo, who jokes about everything, does not joke here.

The glossary contains 40 entries in all