Page "Jerusalem Delivered" Paragraph 4

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.