Matteo Maria Boiardo (c. 1434 – December 20, 1494), was an Italian poet, born at, or near, Scandiano (Reggio Emilia); died at Reggio. Events May 30, Battle of Lipany in the Hussite Wars Jan van Eyck paints the wedding of Giovanni Arnoflini The Honorable Passing of Arms at the bridge of Obrigo The Portuguese reach Cape Bojador in Western Sahara. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... Reggio Emilia is a town of North Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. ...

The son of Giovanni di Feltrino and Lucia Strossi, he was of noble lineage, ranking as Count of Scandiano, with seignorial power over Arceto, Casalgrande, Gesso, and Torricella. Boiardo was an ideal example of a gifted and accomplished courtier possessing at the same time a manly heart and deep humanistic learning.

Up to the year of his marriage to Taddea Gonzaga, the daughter of the Count of Novellara (1472), he had received many marks of favour from Borso d'Este, duke of Ferrara, having been sent to meet Frederick III (1469), and afterwards visiting Pope Paul II (1471), in the train of Borso. In 1473 he joined the retinue which escorted Eleonora of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand I, to meet her spouse, Ercole, at Ferrara. Five years later he was invested with the governorship of Reggio, an office which he filled with noted success till his death, except for an interval (1481-86) during which he was governor of Modena. Detail of Aeneas Piccolomini Introduces Eleonora of Portugal to Frederick III by Pinturicchio (1454-1513) Frederick III of Habsburg (Innsbruck, September 21, 1415 – August 19, 1493 in Linz) was elected as German King as the successor of Albert II in 1440. ... Pope Paul II, né Pietro Barbo (February 23, 1417 – July 26, 1471), was pope from 1464 to 1471. ... Ferdinand I (1423 - January 25, 1494), also called Don Ferrante, was the King of Naples from 1458 to 1494. ... Ferrara, a town, an archiepiscopal see and a province in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ... Modena (Mòdna in Modenese dialect) is a city and a province on the south side of the Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ...

In his youth Boiardo had been a successful imitator of Petrarca's love poems. From the c. ...

More serious attempts follow with the Istoria Imperiale, some adaptations of Nepos, Apuleius, Herodotus, Xenophon, etc., and his Eclogues. Cornelius Nepos (c. ... Lucius Apuleius (c. ... Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡροδοτος, Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Xenophon (In Greek , c. ...

Follows also a comedy, Il Timone (1487?).

He is most remembered for the grandiose poem of chivalry and romance L'Orlando Innamorato. See also order of chivalry Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ... Orlando Innamorato is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. ...

Rime, another work (Scandiano, 1499), was nearly forgotten when Panizzi published it in the 19th century (London, 1835).

External links

• Works by Matteo Maria Boiardo at Project Gutenberg
• Boiardo's influence on the early Tarot game inclusive an extensive time line of Boiardo's life