Torquato Tasso

Timeline

1. 1544–1565Sorrento · CampaniaBorn in Sorrento, he received humanist education in Padua and Bologna, showing poetic talent early and beginning to write eclogues and lyric poems.
2. 1565–1579Ferrara · Emilia-RomagnaServed as poet at the Este court in Ferrara, composing the epic Jerusalem Delivered, completing the first draft in 1573, the pinnacle of Italian Renaissance epic poetry.
3. 1579–1586Ferrara · Emilia-RomagnaImprisoned by the duke for seven years over his unrequited love for Princess Eleonora and religious delusions, during which he continued revising the epic and wrote works such as Jerusalem Sacked.
4. 1586–1595Rome · LazioAfter release he wandered Italy; in 1594 the definitive edition of Jerusalem Delivered appeared in Venice, and in 1595 he died in Rome on the eve of Pope Clement VIII's plan to crown him poet laureate.