ABSTRACT
In the late sixteenth century Torquato Tasso was well known not only at the Tudor and Stuart courts but also at the French embassy in London, as is suggested by Gentili's dedication of Annotationi to Guillaume de l'Aubpine, baron de Chteauneuf. Moreover, works like De legationibus, De iure belli, as well as Solymeidos and Annotationi, also shed light on the early ideological and linguistic re-appropriation of the Liberata by Italian Protestant readers. In Tasso's writings, in the Liberata and in Messaggiero, Scipione and Alberico Gentili saw reflected contemporary concerns related not only to Renaissance poetic but also to the rise of new diplomatic practices, especially with regard to immunity, reason of state, and to the ambassador's obligation toward the prince. According to Gentili the Liberata was far from being a celebration of Counter-Reformation orthodoxy and Tasso's representation of violence and war had in fact a precise poetical and ethical purpose.
