Giudicio sovra la ‘Gerusalemme’ riformata

“I shall not compare myself with Ariosto, therefore, nor my Gierusalemme with his Furioso – as both my friends and enemies have done in almost equal measure – but my older self that is close to death with my younger and more immature self, and I shall compare my rather earthly Gierusalemme with that which, unless I am mistaken, resembles more closely the idea of the celestial Gierusalemme” (translated from T. Tasso, Giudicio sovra la sua Gerusalemme riformata, edited by C. Gigante, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 2000, 11-12). Tasso’s final theoretical statement is thus made ex post, with the intention of comparing his new Gerusalemme conquistata with the work that had appeared fifteen years earlier, without his consent but to great applause. Understanding that his revised epic had met with less success, as testified also by the lack of reprints, Tasso aimed to show in the Giudicio that the Conquistata was preferable both because of its richer (and more orthodox) allegory, and in view of the improved relationship between plot and the history of the Crusade. With this objective, the prose of the Giudicio (an unfinished work with only two of the three books planned by Tasso, namely De l’istoria e de l’allegoria and De la favola) reveals the dense overlay of references and sources used for the Conquistata, and the wide reading, especially of theological texts, that now sustained his poetic beliefs.