Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento in 1544.
When still very young, he had to follow his father in exile, first to Rome and then to Bergamo and Urbino. The separation from his birthplace, Sorrento, caused him great sadness and the reason for this exile is echoed in many of his works. In 1559, the family moved to Venice, where Torquato wrote the first draft of his poem on the Crusades, “Gerusalemme” (Jerusalem). He then enrolled in the University of Padua to study Philosophy and Oratory. In Padua, he wrote the chivalric poem “Rinaldo” and his first love poems, and also attended the Academy of the Ethereals.
In 1565, Tasso entered the court of the Este in Ferrara; the first few years were happy and his rediscovered tranquillity allowed him to finish “Gerusalemme liberata” (Jerusalem delivered) (1575) and write the “Discorsi dell’arte poetica” (Discourses on the poetic art). Two years previously, the pastoral play in 5 acts “Aminta” had been performed. Tasso soon lost his serenity and started to show signs of a breakdown: his main worry was the criticism of his poem “Gerusalemme liberata” and the fear that it was not judged to be orthodox by the Church. He revised the poem several times and, of his own will, subjected it to the judgement of the Inquisition who acquitted it twice. He developed a persecution complex and was confined to the dungeons of the castle in 1577. He managed to escape, and travelled throughout Italy. In 1579 he returned to Ferrara where, disappointed by his welcome at court of the Este, he verbally attacked the Duke who imprisoned him again, also for political reasons (he feared his declarations of heresy would enrage the Pope who was already showing an interest in his property).
During the 7 years he was imprisoned, he wrote some of his poems and a large part of the “Dialoghi” (Dialogues) and defended his poem (published in 1581) from the critics by writing several apologies including “Apologia della Gerusalemme” (Apology for Jerusalem) (1585). In 1586, the intervention of Gonzaga (the Duke of Mantua) freed him from imprisonment and he moved to Mantua but soon started his travels again. He passed his last years in Naples and Rome, writing the biblical poem “Mondo creato” and “Discorsi del poema eroico” (Discourses on the heroic poem) (1594), which continued and modified, in an educational manner, the theory of the epic poem previously discussed in “Discorsi dell’arte poetica”. The continuous revision of the poem led to the publication of “Gerusalemme conquistata” (Jerusalem conquered) in 1593.