author
Torquato Tasso
1544–1595
Best known for Jerusalem Delivered, this late Renaissance poet brought epic adventure, courtly feeling, and spiritual conflict together in one of Italy’s most famous poems. His life was as dramatic as his writing, marked by success, controversy, and long periods of inner turmoil.
1 Audiobook
Jerusalem Delivered
by Torquato Tasso
About the author
Born in Sorrento in 1544, Torquato Tasso grew up in a cultured but unsettled world. His father, Bernardo Tasso, was also a poet, and the family moved often during Torquato’s youth. He studied in Padua and Bologna and soon gained attention for his literary talent.
Tasso became closely associated with the court of Ferrara, where he wrote lyric poetry, pastoral drama, and the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), published in 1581. The poem, centered on the First Crusade, made him one of the most celebrated Italian writers of his time and secured his place among the major poets of the Renaissance.
His later years were troubled by anxiety, disputes, and periods of confinement, and his reputation came to be shaped as much by his suffering as by his art. He died in Rome in 1595, just before he was to be ceremonially crowned as a poet on the Capitoline Hill.