Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet who, in 1532, wrote the epic poem Orlando Furioso. In it, the hero of the tale, Astolpho, travels to the Moon in a chariot, drawn by four red horses, in quest of the lost mind of Orlando. The mind turns up in a flask, but that is not all he finds on arrival. Not only did the Moon, "which was swell'd like the Earth, and seem'd an Earth in size," possess most of the natural features of this planet, it also had castles, towns, and cities.

In OrlandoFurioso, the hero travels to the Moon in a chariot drawn by four red horses.