A ubiquitous presence in European chivalric literature, the multifaceted figure of the Saracen Other plays a vital role in shaping the knightly values and ideologies underpinning some of the most influential narrative poems of the Italian Renaissance. By combining historical research and close reading and bringing to bear a wealth of literary and documentary sources, some of which have never before been published, this book analyses portrayals of Saracens and their world in Boiardo’s Inamoramento de Orlando and Ariosto’s Orlando furioso.