Rethinking Gaspara Stampa in the Canon of Renaissance Poetry

Despite the fact that Gaspara Stampa (1523?-1554) has been recognized as one of the greatest and most creative poets and musicians of the Italian Renaissance, scholarship on her work has been surprisingly scarce and uncoordinated. In recent years, critical attention towards her work has increased, but until now there have been no anthologies dedicated solely to Stampa. Rethinking Gaspara Stampa in the Canon of Renaissance Poetry aims to set a foundation for further Stampa studies by accounting for her contributions to literature, music history, gender studies, the history of ideas, philosophy, and other areas of critical thought. This volume brings together an international group of interdisciplinary scholars who employ varied methodologies to explore multiple aspects of Stampaa€?s work in dialogue with the most recent scholarship in the field. The chapters emphasize the many ways in which Stampaa€?s poetry engages with multiple cultural movements of early modern Italy and Europe, including: Ficinian and Renaissance Neoplatonism, male-authored writing about women, Longinusa€?s theory of the sublime, the formation of writing communities, the rediscovery of Aristotlea€?s writings, and the reimagined relation between human and natural worlds. Taken as a whole, this volume presents a rich introduction to, and interdisciplinary investigation of, Gaspara Stampaa€?s impact on Renaissance culture.

Unn Falkeid is Research Fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, affiliated with the Department of Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University. Aileen A. Feng is Assistant Professor of Italian and Faculty Affiliate in Gender and Womena€?s Studies at the University of Arizona, USA.