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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Dear colleagues, I am delighted to invite you to our next seminar. Luca Degl’Innocenti will give a paper on “Ariosto and the cantimpanca”, on Wednesday 23d November, UCL Italian, Foster Court 351, 6.00-7.30pm. First published in 1516, Ariosto’s Orlando furioso soon became immensely popular, both in print and in oral recitations. For 500 years, it has not only been reprinted countless time, but also read aloud, recited from memory, and most importantly sung. Throughout the 16th century, in particular, its stanzas were sung everywhere, by everyone and for the most various reasons; but above all it was sung by the itinerant performers known as cantimpanca, whose narrative cantari were among Ariosto’s main models, and whose repertoires of street performances and catalogues of chapbooks abounded in excerpts and imitations of the Furioso immediately after its publication. This paper reassesses some already known facts and examines new evidence, focusing in particular on the role of Niccolò Zoppino, a charlatan publisher who was among the first to reprint the Orlando furioso, the first to illustrate it, and most likely also among the first to sing it publicly – possibly even in the presence of Ariosto. A little bibliographical finding, finally, will urge us to reappraise what we believe we know about the boundaries that separated elite poets and street performers in Renaissance Italy and warns us that their worlds interacted more directly than we are used to thinking. Luca Degl’Innocenti has been a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Florence (2007-2012) and at the University of Leeds (2012-2015). His research has focused on chivalric literature, history of the book, popular culture, the oral performance of literary texts and the interactions between texts and images in Renaissance Italy. His publications include I ‘Reali’ dell’Altissimo: un ciclo di cantari fra oralità e scrittura (2008), an article on Machiavelli as a canterino (2015), and essays on the illustrated editions of chivalric poems, such as Aretino’s Marfisa, Ludovico Dolce’s Le prime imprese del conte Orlando, and ‘Il Furioso del Beccafumi. Due cicli silografici ariosteschi’ (2010). All welcome! Kind regards, Carlotta Dr. Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti Lecturer in Italian Studies Department of Italian (SELCS) UCL [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe italian-studies YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe italian-studies to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/italian-studies