From Sorrento to Turin

Fleeing from Ferrara at the end of July 1577, Tasso first went to Bologna where he spoke with the city’s Inquisitor. After this he went to his sister Cornelia’s home in Sorrento, disguised as a shepherd - an episode recounted by Manso that was to become legendary. He stayed there for several months before moving to Rome, where he was a guest of Giulio Masetti, the Este Ambassador. Reassured that the Duke was well-disposed towards him, he returned to Ferrara in the spring of 1578, staying only a few weeks before taking up his wandering once more, and travelling to Mantua, Padua, Venice and then Pesaro and Urbino. In September, he arrived in Turin, where he was received by Marquis Filippo d’Este, a cousin of Alfonso II. While in Turin, he began work on Forno overo de la nobiltà, and used the city as the setting for one of his most beautiful and harmonious dialogues, the Padre di famiglia, which was among the first of the elegant and scholarly compositions written possibly as an attempt to overcome his bitterness and discontent. In the first few weeks of 1579, restless also in his Turin abode, and apparently unable to resist the Este Court, Tasso returned to Ferrara for the Duke’s third marriage, this time to Margherita Gonzaga.