Clement VIII

Born at Fermo in 1535, Ippolito Aldobrandini was appointed cardinal in 1585 and, after a period as legate in Poland, he was elected Pope in January 1592. He died in March 1605, just before turning 70. Tasso celebrated his election with a magnificent canzone (Questa fatica estrema al tardo ingegno, Rime, 1538), and in 1595 added a series of celebratory sonnets which are among his last poems. More importantly, however, Tasso benefitted from the patronage of all of the Pope’s family, and in particular Cinzio Aldobrandini, Cardinal-nephew of Clement VIII. He also benefitted from the new cultural climate that emerged after 1592. At the Papal Court, in the circles around Cinzio and his cousin Pietro, he made contact again with literary figures he had known in his younger days, such as Francesco Patrizi and Aldo Manuzio the younger. In 1594, tired and old, he was recalled to Rome – several times, according to Manso - during one of his periods in Naples, with the promise of poetic laurels at the Campidoglio, something that Tasso now regarded with some disenchantment as tardy recognition. He died in spring 1595, before he could receive his crown.