Torquato Tasso

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Monument to Torquato Tasso by Giuseppe Fabris, 1857
Chiesa Sant'Onofrio (Church of Saint Onuphrius)
Piazza di Sant'Onofrio, Gianicolo
Rome, April 2013

The sacred armies, and the godly knight,
That the great sepulchre of Christ did free,
I sing; much wrought his valor and foresight,
And in that glorious war much suffered he;
In vain 'gainst him did Hell oppose her might,
In vain the Turks and Morians armed be:
His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutinies prest,
Reduced he to peace, so Heaven him blest.

(translated by Edward Fairfax in 1600)

“Today Torquato Tasso and his poem La Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) are almost forgotten, but until the beginning of the XIXth century they were very popular: the hero of the poem is Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade. Tasso died in 1595 in S. Onofrio when he was about to be crowned with a laurel wreath in Campidoglio. In 1857, at a time of great difficulty for the Papal State, Pope Pius IX dedicated a chapel of S. Onofrio to him.” (Chiostro di S. Onofrio, A Rome Art Lover's Web Page)