The Pathways of Knowledge in Boiardo and Ariosto: The Case of Rodamonte Author(s): Jo Ann Cavallo Source: Italica, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 305-320 Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3656094 . Accessed: 24/04/2014 10:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. American Association of Teachers of Italian is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Italica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.59.152.32 on Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:44:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ThePathways of Knowledgein Boiardo andAriosto: The Case of Rodamonte "Allmen by naturedesire to know."- Aristotle,Metaphysics How do we come to know?What can be known?How can trueknowl- edge be distinguishedfrom belief and opinion?What are the effects of knowledge? How does knowledge shape the course of our actions? Theseare some of the questionsthat philosophers were askingin fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuryItaly. The answerswould have differeddepending on whether one adhered to scholastic Aristotelianism,Neoplatonism, "naturephilosophies," or Skepticism,but all schools of thought were engaged in discussions about the nature of knowledge.1 Philosophers, moreover,were not the only ones interestedin the processof knowledge acquisitionand the relationof knowledge to action.In this essay I focus on how the poets MatteoMaria Boiardo and Lodovico Ariosto develop their thoughts on the subjectin their romanceepics, Orlandoinnamorato and Orlandofurioso.