"Eccovi il don de l'onorata testa". Tasso, il Battista decollato e la forza della parola

The aim of this paper is to propose an interpretation of sonnet 1655 by Torquato Tasso, Eccovi il don de l'onorata testa; the analysis casts doubts on the hypothesis that the sonnet, a serious poem with numerous literary and biblical references, would be «sovra un ritratto di S. Giovanni Battista», as the captions on the manuscripts that passed it down state. Tasso quotes a precise sixteenth century iconography of the decapitated head of John the Baptist, which the essay brings into focus; but Tasso approches it with the intent to solicit a mental vision of the “bocca già sonora" and therefore a reflection on the strength of the prophetic word and sacred oratory, and ultimately on the vitality of poetry which evokes images capable of bearing the truth.