Exploratory Seminar "Ariosto and the Arabs"

This seminar addresses the complex but still largely unexplored question of the relationship of the Orlando furioso to the worlds of Islam, opening up new perspectives on the disparate worlds and conflicts that Ariosto imaginatively reconstructed in his great poem. Focusing on the role of the Muslim as the essential ‘Other’ in Ariosto’s text and on Islam in the poet’s world, the objective is to investigate the relational systems that might be reconstructed around the Furioso from the perspective of its anteriority, contemporaneity, and posterity. To this end, the seminar seeks to engage with these concerns in following three lines of inquiry: textual, visual, and performative. The project takes its inspiration from a poem of Jorge Luis Borges, “Ariosto y los Arabes” (1960).

organizers: Mario Casari (‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma)
Monica Preti (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
Michael Wyatt (Independent scholar)

participants:
Vincent Barletta (Stanford University)
Thomas Bauer (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
Anna Contadini (SOAS, University of London)
Marzia Faietti (Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Firenze)
Stefano Jossa (Royal Holloway College)
Giovanni Ricci (University of Ferrara)