37 Facts About Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem Gerusalemme liberata, in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099.

Torquato Tasso's work was widely translated and adapted, and until the beginning of the 20th century, he remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe.

Torquato Tasso's father had for many years been secretary in the service of Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, and his mother was closely connected with the most illustrious Neapolitan families.

When, during the boy's childhood, the prince of Salerno came into collision with the Spanish government of Naples, being subsequently outlawed and deprived of his hereditary fiefs, Torquato Tasso's father shared his patron's fate.

Torquato Tasso was proclaimed a rebel to the state, along with his son Torquato, and his patrimony was sequestered.

In 1552 Torquato Tasso was living with his mother and his only sister Cornelia at Naples, pursuing his education under the Jesuits, who had recently opened a school there.

News reached them in 1556 that Porzia Torquato Tasso had died suddenly and mysteriously at Naples.

Torquato Tasso's husband was firmly convinced that she had been poisoned by her brother with the object of getting control over her property.

Torquato Tasso's father was a poet by predilection and a professional courtier.

Therefore, when an opening at the court of Urbino was offered in 1557, Bernardo Torquato Tasso gladly accepted it.

Bernardo Torquato Tasso read cantos of his poem L'Amadigi to the duchess and her ladies, or discussed the merits of Homer and Virgil, Trissino and Ariosto, with the duke's librarians and secretaries.

Torquato Tasso grew up in an atmosphere of refined luxury and somewhat pedantic criticism, both of which gave a permanent tone to his character.

Torquato Tasso found himself the pet and prodigy of a distinguished literary circle but Bernardo had suffered in his own career so seriously from dependence on his writings and the nobility, that he now determined on a lucrative profession for his son.

Torquato Tasso became the addressee of his first series of love sonnets, to be followed in 1563 by Laura Peperara, the next object of Tasso's affections.

From 1565, Torquato Tasso's life was centered on the castle at Ferrara, the scene of many later glories and cruel sufferings.

Torquato Tasso owed much to the constant kindness of both sisters.

Torquato Tasso left France next year, and took service under Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara, the Cardinal's brother.

Torquato Tasso chose Virgil for his model, took the first crusade for subject, infused the fervor of religion into his conception of the hero, Godfrey.

The poem was sent in manuscript to a large committee of eminent literary men, Torquato Tasso expressing his willingness to hear their strictures and to adopt their suggestions unless he could convert them to his own views.

Torquato Tasso had to defend himself against all these ineptitudes and pedantries, and to accommodate his practice to the theories he had rashly expressed.

Torquato Tasso opened negotiations with the court of Florence for an exchange of service.

Meanwhile, through the years 1575,1576 and 1577, Torquato Tasso's health grew worse.

Torquato Tasso became consumed by thoughts that his servants betrayed his confidence, fancied he had been denounced to the Inquisition, and expected daily to be poisoned.

Some biographers have surmised that a compromising liaison with Leonora d'Este came to light, and that Torquato Tasso agreed to feign madness in order to cover her honor, but of this there is no proof.

Alfonso consented, provided Torquato Tasso would agree to undergo a medical course of treatment for his melancholy.

Torquato Tasso had no children, and unless he got an heir, there was a probability that his state would fall, as in fact it eventually did, to the Holy See.

The nuptial festivals, on the eve of which Torquato Tasso arrived, were not therefore an occasion of great rejoicing for the elderly bridegroom.

Torquato Tasso, preoccupied as always with his own sorrows and his own sense of dignity, made no allowance for the troubles of his master.

Torquato Tasso firmly believed that Tasso was insane, and he felt that if he were so St Anna was the safest place for him.

Yet Torquato Tasso felt bound to reply; and he did so with a moderation and urbanity which prove him to have been not only in full possession of his reasoning faculties, but a gentleman of noble manners.

In 1586 Torquato Tasso left St Anna at the solicitation of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua.

Torquato Tasso followed his young deliverer to the city by the Mincio, basked awhile in liberty and courtly pleasures, enjoyed a splendid reception from his paternal town of Bergamo, and reworked his 1573 tragedy Galealto Re di Norvegia into a classical drama entitled Torrismondo.

Torquato Tasso endured a veritable Odyssey of malady, indigence and misfortune.

Torquato Tasso had the palaces of princes, cardinals, patriarchs, nay popes, always open to him.

Torquato Tasso's health grew ever feebler and his genius dimmer.

At no time since Torquato Tasso left St Anna had the heavens apparently so smiled upon him.

The disease Torquato Tasso had is believed to be bipolarity.