Ludovico Ariosto was born on September 8, 1474 in Italy. Although his father had planned for him to have a legal career and he reluctantly studied law, he eventually turned to the study of literature. This was abruptly halted by the death of his father in 1500 and Ludovico, as the eldest, had to support his nine younger siblings. To this end, he spent the majority of his life in the service of the Este family of Ferrara. Ariosto wrote many popular plays, poems, and satires. The poem Orlando Furioso is his masterpiece and is considered one of the greatest embodiments of the literary and spiritual ideas of the Italian Renaissance. A long narrative written in octave stanzas, it consists of… several episodes deftly modeled on epics, romances, and heroic poems. His seven Satires reveal his sorrow at his inability to complete his literary studies. Other works include Cassaria, La Lena, and I Suppositi, particularly notable because they were written in the vernacular. Ariosto spent his last years of life in Ferrara married to Alessandra Benucci, during which time he revised Orlando Furioso. He died on July 6, 1533.