Early life
Born in Sorrento, Torquato was the son of Bernardo Tasso, a nobleman of Bergamo and an epic and lyric poet of considerable fame in his day, and his wife Porzia de Rossi, a … See more

Rime (Rhymes), nearly two thousand lyrics in nine books, were written between 1567 and 1593, influenced by Petrarch's Canzoniere (Songbook).
Galealto re di Norvegia (1573–4) is an unfinished tragedy, which was later finished under a … See more

• Tasso's lyric poetry may have had some influence in late Renaissance France on Desportes and Ronsard (whom Tasso met in Paris). It almost certainly influenced a number of English Elizabethans, including Sir Philip Sidney, Abraham Fraunce and Samuel Daniel See more

Tasso is commemorated by monuments in Bergamo and Sorrento. There are streets named after him in virtually every major Italian city, most notably in Bergamo, Posillipo (Naples), Rome, Turin, Palermo and Catania, as well as in Paris and Palo Alto, … See more

The disease Tasso had is now believed to be bipolarity. Legends describe him wandering the streets of Rome half mad, convinced that he was being persecuted. After his lengthy imprisonment in Ferrara's Santa Anna lunatic asylum, he was able to resume his writing, … See more

During the Renaissance, the first (incomplete) translation of Jerusalem Delivered was brought out by Richard Carew (1594). A complete version by Edward Fairfax appeared … See more

• Ludovico Ariosto
• Orlando Furioso See more