T A S 



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T A S 



much useful information on that department of antient art, 

 was compiled by Mr. R. E. Raspe, who prefixed to the 

 catalogue an introduction on the utility of such a collec- 

 tion of works of art, and on the history of engraving upon 

 hard stones, and the imitation of gems by artificial pastes. 

 The work contains also a frontispiece and fifty-seven plates 

 of gems, etched by David Allan. From Raspe's introduc- 

 tion it appears that the demand for Tassie's pastes was en- 

 couraged, in the first instance, by the jewellers, who 

 introduced them into fashion by setting them in rings, 

 seals, bracelets, and other trinkets. He was very careful of 

 his reputation, and would not issue imperfect impressions ; 

 but the celebrity of his casts induced other and less skilful 

 modellers to sell their works under his name. About 1787 

 or 1788 Tassie received an order from the empress of Rus- 

 sia for a complete set of his gems, which he executed in 

 the most satisfactory manner, in a beautiful white enamel 

 composition, so hard as to strike fire with steel, and of 

 such a texture as to take a fine polish, and to show every 

 touch of the artist with the greatest accuracy. Wherever 

 it was possible to do so, he coloured these in exact imita- 

 tion of the originals and in other cases such colours were 

 used as might display the work to advantage. Tassie's 

 business was continued by his nephew, William, on his 

 premises in Leicester-square ; and he added to the collec- 

 tion a series of casts of coins, from the museum of the late 

 Dr. William Hunter, of which he made a set by order 

 of the emperor Alexander, to add to the gems executed 

 for the empress by his uncle, who died in 1799. Besides 

 the branch of art for which he is principally celebrated, 

 IVssie displayed considerable talent in modelling small 

 portraits in wax, from which he frequently made pastes. 

 He was much respected in private life for his piety, sim- 

 plicity, modesty, and benevolence. 



(Raspe's Catalogue of Tassie's Gems, <5j-c. ; Dr. Gleig's 

 Supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopedia Bri- 

 t'ln/iica. 1801.) 



TASSISUDAN. [BOOTAN.] 



TASSO, BERNARDO, born at Bergamo in 1493, lost 

 his father when a boy, and was brought up under the care 

 of his uncle Luigi Tasso, bishop of Recanati, who was 

 living at Bergamo. The bishop being murdered by 

 robbers in 1520, Tasso left his native town, and lived 

 for several years at Padua and Venice, and other towns 

 of North Italy, where he displayed his talent for poetical 

 composition. In 1525 he engaged himself as secretary to 

 Guiuo Rangonc, who was general of the Papal troops in 

 North Italy. In 1529 he went to the court of Ferrara, 

 where he remained a short time. A volume of Italian 

 verses which he published at Venice in 1531 made him 

 known to Fen-ante Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, one of 

 tlit: principal Neapolitan barons, who kept a princely court 

 after the feudal fashion of the times. The prince invited 

 him to come to Naples, granted him a handsome allowance, 

 with the liberty of withdrawing himself from time to time 

 from his court to apply to his poetical studies in rural 

 retirement. Tasso accompanied the prince of Salerno in 

 the expedition which Charles V. undertook against Tunis, 

 i:i 1534. He was afterwards sent to Spain, in 1537, on a 

 cal mission, and on his return he spent some time at 

 Venice, where he became acquainted with the celebrated 

 Tullia d'Aragona, the illegitimate daughter of a cardinal of 

 the royal house of Aragon, who was herself a poetess, and 

 led a very free life. Bernardo Tasso wrote verses in 

 her praise. Having at last disentangled himself from this 

 connection, he returned to Naples, where he soon after 

 married a young lady of Sorrento called Porzia de Rossi, 

 by whom he had a son, Torquato. In 1547 an insurrection 

 broke out at Naples against the Spanish viceroy Don 

 Pedro de Toledo, who, in concert with Pope Paul III., 

 wished to establish the Inquisition in Naples after the 

 fashion of Spain. The people elected a sort of council 

 composed of nobles and citizens, under the name of ' Union 

 for the service of God, the emperor, and the city,' to 

 administer temporarily the affairs of the country. This 

 ehose the prince of Sanseverino and the prince of 

 - its deputies to proceed to Germany and lay 

 theii es before Charles V. Bernardo Tasso, against 



the opinion i>f others, advised the prince to accept this 

 mission. Siinseverino found the emperor highly incensed 

 ml the Neapolitans, and fearing for himself, he went 

 to Kraiu-e and entered the service of Henry II., for which 

 he was declared a rebel by Charles V., and his property 



was confiscated. Bernardo Tasso followed his patron to 

 France, where, after a time, he found himself in great 

 pecuniary dist.ess. He then returned to Italy, and went to 

 the court of Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino, from whence he 

 passed to that of the duke Gonzaga of Mantua, who made 

 him governor of Ostiglia, in which place he died in 1569. 



Bernardo Tasso wrote a romantic poem in ottava rima, 

 entitled ' Amadigi,' the subject of which is taken from a 

 Spanish romance. [AMADIS DE GAULA.] The plot or 

 plots of Tasso's poem are deficient in interest, but the 

 style is good, and the poet excels in his descriptions and 

 comparisons, but he indulges at times in licentious strains. 

 After writing his poem, he detached one of the episodes 

 and swelled it into a separate poem, entitled ' Floridante,' 

 which was published after his death by his son. He also 

 wrote five books of ' rime,' eclogues, hymns, odes, sonnets, 

 and other lyrics, some of which are admired for their 

 imagery and smoothness of versification. He introduced 

 in the Italian language that species of poetry which is 

 called ' pescatoria ' and ' marinaresca,' being descriptive of 

 the habits and occupations of fishermen and mariners. 

 His letters have been published in three volumes. 



(Corniani, Secoli delta Letteratura Italiana ; Tiraboschi, 

 Storia della Letteratura Italiana; Panizzi, Introductory 

 Essay on the Romantic Narrative Poetry of the Italians, 

 prefixed to his edition of ' Bojardo.') 



TASSO, TORQUA'TO, son of Bernardo, was born at 

 Sorrento, in 1544. At the age of ten he was sent for by 

 his father, then an exile, and after some time spent with 

 him in several towns of north Italy, he went to the uni- 

 versity of Padua to study law, for which however he had 

 little inclination. At the age of eighteen he composed 

 his first poem, ' Rinaldo,' in twelve cantos. The subject is 

 romantic, and is taken from the old chivalric legends con- 

 cerning Charlemagne and his wars with the Moors. Ber- 

 nardo was at first angry with his son for neglecting his 

 more serious studies, but at last he relented, and gave his 

 consent to the publication of the poem, which Torquato 

 dedicated to the Cardinal Luigi d'Este, brother of Alfonso 

 II., duke of Ferrara. In 1566 the cardinal took him into 

 his service as a gentleman attendant, and introduced him 

 to his brother the duke, and to his two unmarried sisters 

 Lucrezia and Eleonora. He was well received by all, and 

 admitted into their familiar society. Tasso was young and 

 amorous; he had been for some time passionately in love 

 with Laura Peperara, a lady of Mantua, to whom he ad- 

 dressed many sonnets and other verses after the manner 

 of Petrarch, styling her his Laura. This lady, with whom 

 he had probably become acquainted during a visit which 

 he paid to his father at Mantua in 1564, came some years 

 after to Ferrara as a lady of honour of the duchess, and was 

 married to Count Turchi of Ferrara. But in the mean 

 time Tasso appears to have been struck with the personal 

 attractions and mental accomplishments of the princess 

 Eleonora, the duke's sister, and already in 1566 there is 

 a sonnet by him, beginning ' Nel tuo petto real da voci 

 sparte,' which is evidently addressed to a princess of a 

 sovereign house. From that time he continued to write 

 amatory verses evidently addressed to the same person, 

 whom he styles his ' donna,' or mistress. In some of them 

 he mentions the name of Eleonora, but as there were 

 several ladies of that name at different times at the court 

 of Ferrara, this has given rise to various surmises about 

 the person meant. At last Tasso avowed in several ways 

 his love for the princess, though, from the then existing 

 usages of society, it was impossible that he could ever 

 have obtained her hand. Most of the sonnets and other 

 lyrics, which are evidently intended for this object of his 

 second love, are conceived in a respectful and somewhat 

 melancholy strain, as if the writer felt the hopelessness of 

 his passion. The disparity of rank was in those times an 

 insurmountable obstacle to any legitimate result of such 

 an attachment, and the house of Este was one of the 

 proudest in Italy. Like Petrarch, Tasso seems to have 

 obtained friendship only in return for his love. But there 

 are some of Tasso's compositions written between 1567 and 

 1570, in which he assumes the tone of a favoured lover. 

 Such are the two sonnets 'Donna di me doppia vittoria 

 aveste' and 'Prima eolla belt;\ voi mi vinceste,' the dia- 

 logue between love and a lover, beginning ' Tu ch' i piu 

 ehiusi affetti,' and the madrigal which begins 'Soavissimo 

 bacio.' From the context, although no name is men- 

 tioned they all evidently allude to the same object as the 

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