«Holiness begins with the Hands»: the Moralization of the Chivalric Novel in the Remaking of the Orlando Innamorato by Francesco Berni

This article analyses the ways in which Francesco Berni moralizes the cases of the paladins in the chivalric novel Inamoramento de Orlando by Matteo Maria Boiardo. Berni’s work, shows a clear commitment to the innovation and recalibration of the support structures that have characterised the knightly epos of Boiardo’s paladins. Berni’s remake aims to create new principles and values inspired by a practice of purified Christianity, which is hybridized with a refined extension of Boiardo's ideals and chivalrous courtesy appearing in every octave of the original text.