«Solo e senza altrui rispetto» (“Orlando Furioso” XXIII, 122, 2). A note about Orlando’s madness

The essay examines the linguistic borrowings in the Orlando Furioso from Dante’s Divine Comedy, studied by Segre and Blasucci, to emphasize the relationship which links, linguistically and hermeneutically, the episode of Orlando’s madness in OF XXIII and the subtext of Paolo and Francesca’s episode in Inferno V, insisting on the metalinguistic aspect which lies beneath both episodes and which preludes to Cervantes’ reuse of the chivalric theme of madness, through Ariosto’s model.