Matteo Maria Boiardo

Born in Scandiano in either 1440 or 1441 and dead in 1494, Matteo Maria Boiardo was an Italian nobleman and poet closely tied to the Este court at Ferrara. Reliable reference sources describe him as spending much of his childhood in Ferrara and serving the dukes of Este, while also holding civic roles in places including Modena and Reggio.

Boiardo is best remembered for Orlando innamorato (Orlando in Love), the poem that gave fresh life to the fading chivalric epic. Critics credit it with bringing together Arthurian romance and the Charlemagne tradition in a new way, opening the path later followed by Ariosto.

He also wrote in Latin and composed Amorum libri tres, a set of love lyrics often noted for feeling unusually direct and personal for the fifteenth century. Even though his major epic remained unfinished, his work stands at an important turning point in Italian Renaissance literature.