Tasso Torquato

Torquato Tasso (b. 1544–d. 1595) is best known today for his narrative poem Gerusalemme liberata (1581), often considered the first successful classical epic in the Italian vernacular. This work recounts the final year of the First Crusade (1099), combining a manifestly classical structure, based on the models of Virgil and Homer, with a profound attention to the passionate inner lives of its characters, both Christian and otherwise. Yet Tasso was a prolific writer, composing works across a wide range of genres, including lyric, pastoral, tragedy, as well as many philosophical dialogues. He was also an important theorist of poetic genre, working within a markedly Aristotelian paradigm. Born in Sorrento, Tasso traveled frequently in his youth among the courts of central and northern Italy accompanying his father Bernardo, a courtier and well-known poet. The younger Tasso later studied philosophy at the University of Padua, where he developed a substantial knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy. In the same period, he frequented literary salons, engaging enthusiastically in debates about literature. A precocious youth, Tasso published his first work, the chivalric romance Rinaldo (1562), when only eighteen years old. In the mid-1560s, his evident abilities led him to join the court of the powerful Este family in Ferrara, where he would compose his greatest works: the pastoral play Aminta (1573) and the epic Gerusalemme liberata (revised and completed by 1576). Following this period, his health, both physical and mental, began to deteriorate. In 1579, Alfonso II Duke of Ferrara imprisoned the poet in the Hospital of Sant’Anna, ostensibly for madness. During his confinement and after his eventual release in 1586, Tasso continued to write prolifically. He completed a large number of philosophical dialogues, the tragedy Il re Torrismondo (1587), a rewritten version of his epic known as Gerusalemme conquistata (1593), and the cosmological poem Il mondo creato (printed posthumously, 1607). During his lifetime, Tasso’s fame extended widely: Montaigne claims to have personally witnessed the poet’s “madness,” and Queen Elizabeth I was reported to have memorized sections of the Gerusalemme liberata and inquired about his health. Tasso’s work had an immediate influence not only on the course of European literature (such as on the works of Spenser, Cervantes, and Milton), but also on various other fields, including painting, music, and opera. This article offers an introductory bibliographical overview of Tasso, his large number of works, and his reception in literature and the arts.

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