Quoting the “Orlando Innamorato” to Mussolini: Alfredo Panzini and Fascist Re-uses of Boiardo

Mussolini donated the oldest surviving edition of the Orlando Innamorato to the Marciana Library in 1933, after receiving it as a gift. Starting from the possible meanings of this gift, the article shows how Boiardo's main supporter in fascist culture, Alfredo Panzini, used quotations to revive and correct the legacy of the Innamorato as a novelist, essayist, and lexicographer. While Panzini initially adopted an anti-pedantic form of generative quotation, the surrounding hostility towards Boiardo – and the very nature of fascist culture – turned his quotations into overwhelming (and even fraudulent) rhetorical weapons.