Tasso’s letters are still read in the five-volume edition produced by Cesare Guasti in the mid-nineteenth century (T. Tasso, Le lettere, edited by C. Guasti, 5 vols, Florence, Le Monnier, 1852-1855). It is a very rich collection, with over one and a half thousand letters (to which should be added the small number of unpublished letters which emerged later), and is of considerable relevance in relation to Tasso’s life and output but also to the years and circles with which he was associated. While there are proportionally fewer letters from the years of his youth, the epistolary contains substantial evidence of the revision of his epic poem, and the long period of confusion and anguish of 1577-1579 is also covered. In those years, and above all later on during his confinement at Sant’Anna, letter-writing was a means for Tasso to defend himself publicly, providing him with the opportunity to make his voice heard, and proclaim his innocence (and sanity) to his friends and patrons, in opposition to the growing image of a mad poet. During his seven years of confinement, the epistolary provides details of all Tasso’s attempts to obtain his release, his requests for manuscripts and books, and the birth and development of his writing and publication projects (in this connection there are many important letters addressed to Giovan Battista Licino). In the last ten years, the letters at times point to bursts of activity, attempts to recover lost time, and at other times indicate Tasso’s indecision and ambivalence concerning his future, with a vein of bitterness and disappointment, and an inability to adapt to the conditions offered at Mantua, Rome, or Florence: in short, an extraordinarily rich and clear account of the tenacious discontent of a poet who was far ahead of his time.