STAMPA, GASPARA

(ca. 1523-1554)

Venetian poet and musician, noted both for her poems and for her singing and playing the lute. Born atPaduato a Venetian mother and an impoverished Milanese nobleman and jewel merchant, she and her sister and brother received from their father an education inGreek, Latin, modern languages, and music. After the father's death in 1531, the family moved back toVenicein order to promote the musical careers of both daughters. Gaspara wrote many sonnets and other lyrics dealing with love from a specifically female perspective, criticizing the way in whichwomenwere denied any independence in negotiating their own so-cial and romantic relationships. HerRime, published posthumously by her sister in 1554, give much attention to the psychology of a woman in love. These poems reflect the poet's own attachment to a nobleman unwilling to marry a woman whose social position was lower than his own. Stampa was a disciple of the poetic theories of the Venetianhumanist Pietro Bemboand, following Bembo's ideas, tookPetrarchas her poetic model.