Jerusalem Delivered facts for kids

Jerusalem Delivered (which means La Gerusalemme liberata in Italian) is a famous long poem written by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. It was first published in 1581. The poem tells a story about the First Crusade. In this story, Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, fight against Muslims to capture the city of Jerusalem. The poem is made up of 20 parts called cantos. Each canto has many eight-line sections called stanzas.

This poem is part of the Italian Renaissance style of romantic epic poems. Tasso often used ideas and characters from another famous poem, Orlando furioso ("The Frenzy of Roland"). That poem was written in 1516 by Ludovico Aristo. Tasso's poem also gets ideas from old Greek and Roman epic poems by Homer and Virgil. These ideas are especially seen in parts that describe battles and sieges. A common idea in Tasso's poem is when characters feel torn between what their heart wants and what their duty tells them to do. This struggle between love and bravery or honor is a big part of the poem's strong emotions.

Polish Translation of Jerusalem Delivered

Goffred albo Jeruzalem wyzwolona is the Polish name for the translation of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). It was translated by Piotr Kochanowski. The first printed version came out in Cracow (Kraków) in 1618.

In the 1500s, Polish literature was growing very well. However, Poland did not have a long epic poem of its own. Jan Kochanowski, who was the greatest poet of the Renaissance in Poland, wrote many shorter poems and stories in verse. His nephew, Piotr Kochanowski, was the first poet to bring an epic poem to the Polish people. He did not write his own epic poem. Instead, he translated two very important epic poems from Italian. These were Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.

The Ottava Rima Style

Piotr Kochanowski's translation is important because of the way it was written. The poet used the exact same style as the original, called ottava rima. This is an Italian type of stanza that has eight lines. Each line has 11 syllables. The lines rhyme in a pattern: the first, third, and fifth lines rhyme, then the second, fourth, and sixth lines rhyme, and finally the last two lines rhyme together (abababcc).

Italian poets had been using this eight-line style since the 1300s. Many long poems in Italian literature from the 1400s and 1500s used ottava rima. But there were no such poems in Polish literature at that time. Piotr Kochanowski was the one who brought this style into Polish poetry. Another poet, Sebastian Grabowiecki, had used it earlier in one short poem. In English poetry, ottava rima was used many years before by Thomas Wyatt. In the 1600s, ottava rima became one of the most important poetry styles in Poland.

Piotr Kochanowski's version of Jerusalem Delivered is still read widely today. There are many new editions of his translation. Students even use his translation in school.

Images for kids

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  Clorinda attacks Tancredi, one of a series by Paolo Domenico Finoglia

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  Rinaldo and the wizard of Ascalon, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

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  Part of the Palazzo Panciatichi scheme, in fresco

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  Tancred and Erminia by Nicolas Poussin, 1630s

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  Tancredi Baptizing Clorinda by Domenico Tintoretto, c. 1585

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  Rinaldo Abandons Armida by Charles Errard (c. 1640).

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  Herminia and Vaprino Find the Wounded Tancred by Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1750s).

See also

In Spanish: Jerusalén liberada para niños