Tasso, Torquato. Italian poet. Born in Sorrento, 1544. Studied law at the University of Padua, where he published his earliest poem, "Rinaldo," in 1562. In 1865 Tasso entered the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este, and was invited to the court of his brother, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. While there, he wrote his pastoral drama "Aminta," and in 1775 finished his great epic, "La Gerusalemme Liberata," describing the first Crusade, which was published in 1581. In 1577 Tasso was imprisoned by Alfonso in a convent, from which he escaped. In 1579 he returned to Ferrara, but was confined in a madhouse, where he remained until 1586 when he was released at the intercession of the Duke of Mantua and other princes. In 1594, Clement VIII summoned him to Rome to receive a laurel crown, but he died soon after his arrival in 1595.

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