Scritti in «forma d'orazione». Retorica e filosofia nelle prime prose del Tasso recluso

The essay deals with the proses that Tasso composed during the frst two years of his imprisonment (1579-1580). The comparison between dialogues, treatises and letters composed in the same period and on the basis of common needs highlights the dual nature of these writings: on the one hand, Tasso shapes them by trying to conform to the ideological views of the interlocutors he addresses, and this sometimes leads him to consciously support contradictory positions; on the other hand, however, there are themes treated in a much more serious and substantial way, which are rooted in Tasso’s refection and open to the later outcomes of his thought