Lodovico Ariosto was one of the great poets of the world, as well as a prince of story-tellers. The first edition of his great work, "Orlando Furioso" was published in 1516. The translator here, J. Shield Nicholson, states: "My object has been to retell some of these stories in such a continuous way as to avoid the perplexities of the original presentation in disconnected fragments." He also thought that the poem was better fitted for English readers by translation into prose. Also, "The stories as here told are to be looked on as adaptations rather than translations", but, hopefully, "...nothing is out of harmony with the spirit of Ariosto." At the time of original publication in 1913, J. Shield Nicholson was Professor of Political Economy in the University of Edinburgh.