Starting by remarking that Ariosto programmatically avoids mentioning his models, this essay endeavours to clarify Ariosto’s attitude (displaying or hiding?) towards the Vernacular auctoritates (first of all, Dante and Petrarca), and to understand the reasons why he is so reluctant to mention his models – indeed, much more reluctant in comparison with the sixteenth-century common practice. Ariosto likes hiding rather than exhibiting, as he does not believe in the concept of auctoritas per se; above all, he denies the possibility of predominance of a single voice over the others
