An exploration of the many depictions of Charlemagne in the Italian
tradition of chivalric narratives in verse and prose.
Chivalric tales and narratives concerning Charlemagne were composed and
circulated in Italy from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth
century (and indeed subsequently flourished in forms of popular theatre
which continue today). But are they history or fiction? Myth or fact?
Cultural memory or deliberate appropriation? Elite culture or popular
entertainment? Oral or written, performed or read? Beginning in the age
of Dante with the earliest tales composed for Italians in the hybrid
language of Franco-Italian, which draw inspiration from the French
tradition of Charlemagne narratives, the volume considers the
compositions of anonymous reciters of cantari and the prose versions of
the Florentine Andrea da Barberino, before discussing the major literary
contributions to the genre by Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo and
Ludovico Ariosto. The focus throughout is on the ways in which the
portrait of Charlemagne, seen as both Emperor and King of France, is
persistently ambiguous, affected by the contemporary political situation
and historical events such as invasion and warfare. He emerges through
these texts in myriad guises, from positive and admirable to negative
and despised.
