Gerusalemme liberata (composition)

While the subject-matter of the Liberata, the First Crusade, had already appeared in the Gierusalemme, Tasso returned to the actual writing later on, after working on both the Rinaldo and his theoretical work in the Discorsi dell’arte poetica. The author gave very few outward signs of his work during its entire composition. By 1566 he had reached canto VI, while it seems that the Armida cantos (XIV-XVI) and the episode of Erminia and the shephards (VII) coincide also chronologically with parts of the Aminta, and some manuscripts provide different versions of cantos IX and XII that were written prior to those commonly accepted as standard. Tasso indicated that he completed his epic in autumn 1574, and that it had been read in private to Duke Alfonso and the Princesses. The decade of writing may not be entirely clear but there are abundant details concerning his revision, which started in the spring of 1575 and proved decisive in relation to the final outcome of the Gerusalemme. The text was still in flux, undergoing changes in plot and style, and it is significant that Tasso, in the throes of discussion with his Roman revisors, drafted a number of changes that were applied at a much later stage, in his Conquistata version. The history of the Liberata, however, comes to an end in summer 1576, when Tasso stopped working on it. From 1581, the unauthorized editions of his epic put an end to his doubts.