The Hunterian Associates Keynote Event on Wednesday night went really well. I did not expect that so many people would be interested in Torquato Tasso; wildly popular though he had been for many centuries, he is not exactly a household name nowadays.
As I was giving my talk about the various editions of Gerusalemme Liberata William Hunter owned, and the illustrations in the Hunterian Art Collections, and his copy of William of Tyre, I realised that things were not so different in the eighteenth century for fans of a particular book or writer: judging by the case of Hunter, they would collect and enjoy as many things about their favourite writer and his work as possible – exactly as we do today.
Another thought that struck me was how one form of art fed another and was fed by it in its turn, then as now. Tasso’s heroes and particularly Rinaldo and Armida and their intriguing love story inspired many operas and plays, and it is possible that those performances, in their turn, gave a publishing boost to his book (alas, too late for him to benefit, or care). It is a little like what happens today with famous books turned into films. Think, for example, of all those new editions of The Hobbit following the success of the films.
The event ended with a beautiful aria from Rinaldo, the opera (one of the many inspired by Tasso’s epic) by Handel. Rinaldo will be the subject of the next post. In the meantime, enjoy the song, evocatively rendered by Brianna Robertson – Kirkland:
First Crusade Fictions 