Jerusalem Delivered
Gerusalemme liberata
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A great book. First published AD 1580, written in Italian
Jerusalem Delivered, also known as The Liberation of Jerusalem, is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem. Tasso began work on the poem in the mid-1560s. Originally, it bore the title Il Goffredo. It was completed in April 1575 and that summer the poet read his work to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Lucrezia, Duchess of Urbino. A pirate edition of 14 cantos from the poem appeared in Venice in 1580. The first complete editions of Gerusalemme liberata were published in Parma and Ferrara in 1581.
Your reading
Where it is set
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What it draws on
IliadClassic
Homer, 800 BC
Tasso builds his crusade on Homer's model: a siege, a camp divided by a quarrel, and its greatest warrior, Rinaldo, withdrawn from the fight until his return wins it, as Achilles' does at Troy.
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