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==Tasso, “King of Poets”==

In 1594, Pope Clement VIII invited the Italian poet Torquato Tasso to Rome. In recognition of the international renown he had gained for his epic poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (''The Liberation of Jerusalem''), he was to receive a crown of bays on the Capitoline Hill, as Petrarch had two-and-a-half centuries before, and to assume the title “King of Poets.” Just a few days before this ceremony was to occur, Tasso died on 25 April 1595, leaving this honor unfulfilled.<ref> Article: “Torquato Tasso,” from the 1911 ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Tasso,_Torquato</ref> Since this time, no other poet has been named a candidate for this title.