The composition of this poem grew out of the disputes which followed Tassoni's _Remarks on Petrarch_.

He found himself assailed by two scurrilous libels, which were traced to the Count Alessandro Brusantini, feudal lord of Culagna and Bismozza.
Justice could not be obtained upon the person of so eminent a noble.
Tassoni, with true Italian refinement, resolved to give himself the unique pleasure of ingenious vengeance.

The name of the Count's fief supplied him with a standing dish of sarcasm.

He would write a satiric poem, of which the Conte Culagna should be the burlesque hero.

After ten months' labor, probably in the year 1615, the _Secchia Rapita_ already went abroad in MS.[199] Tassoni sought to pass it off as a product of his youth; but both the style and the personalities which it contained rendered this impossible.