The Accademia degli Eterei

In Padua in the early 1560s, a group of young literary students led by Scipione Gonzaga started to meet as the Accademia degli Eterei (Academy of the Ethereals). The Academy was officially inaugurated with an oration by Stefano Santini on 1 January 1564. Tasso also took part in the bi-weekly meetings, which were devoted to the discussion and recital of poetry. He had just completed a short period in Bologna and had been recalled to Padua by Gonzaga. In November 1564, Tasso delivered the funeral oration for Santini, indicating genuine friendship in the sorrow he expressed at his young friend’s premature death. Many lyrical poems of this period stem from the Eterei circle, and were later collected under the title Rime de gli Academici Eterei, published in Venice at the end of 1566 (see the version edited by G. Auzzas and M. Pastore Stocchi, Padua, Accademia Galileiana, 1995). In the section of poems for Lucrezia Bendidio, Tasso included other early poems, from those in praise of Leonora d’Este to a series of one-offs. Together, Tasso’s compositions give the idea of a traditional practice in lyric poetry, committed to reviving Petrarchan themes and images (“the defence of bella elocutio and graceful poetic ornamentation”, according to Caretti in T. Tasso, Rime eteree, Parma, Zara, 1990, LIII), prior to his attempt to arrive at the more severe and less adorned style, with greater gravitas, that characterized his later years. The Accademia degli Eterei slowly died out after Gonzaga left Padua and after the departure of various group members, but a significant achievement remained, namely, the publication of a poetic anthology resulting from a specific moment for Tasso and the other group members (including Guarini).