Bernardo Tasso was born in Venice in 1493, of a noble but penniless family from Bergamo. After studying at Padua and a period spent with the Rangone family at Modena, he took up service first at the Court of Renée of France, then with Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, an important figure in the Spanish Viceroyalty. Bernard fell into disgrace after remaining faithful to Sanseverino in the clash between Sanseverino and the Viceroy Don Pietro di Toledo, and found himself seeking a post at the Italian courts that were in the most precarious economic situation, a situation in which the young Torquato grew up. After a period in Rome and a move to Ravenna, he found a position at the Court of the Della Rovere family, where his son joined him in 1557. Between Urbino and Pesaro, Bernardo completed his Amadigi, after a lengthy correction process on a work combining epic and chivalric subject-matter, which left its mark on Torquato (who provided an account in his Apologia in defence of his Gerusalemme liberata). After a stay in Venice, where he was associated with the short-lived Accademia della Fama (during which time his most important works were printed, namely, the Amadigi and the Rime in 1560, Ragionamento della poesia in 1562), in the early 1560s Bernardo was close to the House of Este, especially Cardinal Luigi, presenting Torquato to the Este family before entering the Gonzaga household. He spent his last years in poverty and old age at Mantua, where his son visited him several times, and died in Ostilia in September 1569. Torquato wrote a moving account of his father in a letter (T. Tasso, Le lettere, edited by C. Guasti, 5 vols, Florence, Le Monnier, 1852-55, vol. I, 21) and through the years remembered him fondly, defending the Amadigi in the controversy with the Crusca, and completing his father’s unfinished Floridante, which was published in 1587.

Portrait of Bernardo Tasso on the title page of the Amadigi, Venice 1560