Tasso’s knowledge of Plutarch is testified in an annotated volume preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library, an example of the Venice edition of 1532, showing that Tasso read Plutarch’s Moralia in the Latin translations of the early sixteenth century, some of which are the work of Protestant scholars (one of the translators is Erasmus). The book is full of notes written by Tasso probably during his last years, when he was composing his dialogues, the notes themselves often closely reflected in the pages of his philosophical writings. Various analyses, and particularly the investigations carried out by Bruno Basile, indicate that Tasso was thoroughly familiar with Parallel Lives and that he read Plutarch’s pamphlets on morals not only via the Barberini text but also in other volumes, clearly modelling his own ideas on them, as in the case of On Music and his dialogue on Tuscan poetry, Plutarch’s distinction between friend and flatterer and his own Manso overo de l’amicizia, and also in the case of Risposta di Roma a Plutarco.

Page from the Opuscula Plutarchei Cheronei (Venice, Fratelli da Sabbio, 1532) with annotations in Torquato Tasso’s hand

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberini Collection