TORQUATO TASSO, the author of the Jesusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata), the famed epic poem of the First Crusade, was born at Sorrento in 1544 and served as court poet to the d'Este family in Ferrara for many years. He suffered greatly at their hands, however, when Alphonso II had him confined for seven years as insane in Sant'Anna Hospital. He spent the remainder of his life wandering through Italy, much admired but impoverished. He died in Rome in 1595 at the monastery of Sant 'Onofrio on the Gianicolo.
