Angelo Ingegneri

Born in Venice in 1550, Angelo Ingegneri met Tasso in Rome in 1575, during the weeks when Tasso was engrossed with his revisors. He met him again in Turin in 1578 and the following year in Ferrara. Although they did not develop a deep friendship, Ingegneri was destined to play a decisive role in the dissemination of the Liberata. After Tasso’s confinement at Sant’Anna had begun, he came upon a manuscript of the epic. At first he planned to have it corrected by Tasso, but after the partial editions of 1579-1580 he decided to publish the text, giving it the title of Gerusalemme liberate, which then remaining. During years that followed, he was in service to the Farnese family at Parma, and was a leading participant in the activities of Vicenza’s Accademia Olimpica concerning tragedy (in 1598 he published Della poesia rappresentativa e del modo di rappresentare le favole sceniche). When he entered the service of Cinzio Aldobrandini, he and Tasso renewed their acquaintance. In addition to other duties as secretary, he was assigned the task of copying Tasso’s manuscripts, and the most important manuscript in the tradition of the Mondo creato is in his hand. He also took it upon himself to have the poem printed, against the wishes of the Aldobrandini family. He spent his final years in Urbino, Turin and Venice, where he died in 1613.