The imprint of Orlando Furioso on the “epic” half of Francisco Núñez de Oria’s Lyra Heroyca (1581)

Abstract

Among the bibliography of Dr. Francisco Núñez de Oria we find an unexpected and long epic poem in Latin in fourteen cantos, the Lyra Heroyca (Salamanca, Matias Gast, 1581). The humanist structures the events, in the image of the Aeneid, around two thematic blocks, although not as clearly defined as in the classical poem: a first half more centred on the vicissitudes of the paladins and a second half, whose action revolves around the conflict of the Saracens against the Christians in Paris. In this article, we demonstrate by evidence that the Orlando Furioso is the main vernacular source for the episodes comprising the Parisian war, id est, the last seven books of the Lyra Heroyca, just as it is for the "novelistic" episodes of the first half of the poem.