I shall admit that I knew nothing of Gaspara Stampa. I never heard her name or read a single one of her poems. Then I came across mention of her in the first of Rainer Maria Rilke's first Duino Elegy*, so I looked her up. It turns out that she is generally considered to be the greatest female poet of the Italian Renaissance. So, I decided to read some of her work and, thankfully, there is a fairly recently new translation of Selected Poems. This one.

The translation and editing have been done by Laura Anna Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie. I cannot vouch for their accuracy but this book has the original Italian so if you do speak Italian you can cross-reference them.

The introduction calls these poems an 'amorous Calvary' and they are her response to her love for Collatino di Collalto, Count of Collalto in all its manifold moods. Collalto was, apparently, first pretty impressed with her attentions but eventually - possible - found her passionate intensity a little irksome. They did have an affair for a while and rumour is that Gaspara Stampa was a courtesan and that, rather than her poetry, seems to have preoccupied scholars more than it should. It doesn't really matter what she was except that she was a poet.

She was first published in Italian in 1554, but very few of her poems have been translated into English. I did wonder about this as I read them because they reminded me - sometimes more directly than others - of Shakespeare's Sonnets, but it seems that the chances of Shakespeare reading them and being influenced by them are long.

Most of the poems here are sonnets but there are eight madrigals, two longer poems and a smattering of other forms.

But enough of the preamble, what of the poetry? Well, it is good. Sometimes exceptional. The long poem, #298, which is dedicated to a Nun and compares her life to the life of women in the 'real' world is a masterpiece. Indeed the last few poems in the collection seem to have a more direct religious turn than the earlier ones, although being Renaissance Italy religion is not far behind.

These poems cover jealousy, longing, pain, hope, joy and all the parts of love that one can feel - and today, we have naming of parts. #88 features the lines:

"You made me drink of you dark river Lethe
Which pleases me the more, the more it harms me"

Which is pleasingly gothic and might sneak into a Sisters of Mercy song given the right motivation. #22 is delightfully snarky:

"And maybe pity for my pain will move you
Where now you walk about in scornful pride'
Since you don't see it deeply as I feel it."

None of the poems has a title btw, they're all just numbered. My bookmark contains a list of 22 poems I particular liked above all the others, but to be honest this is a fine collection of love poetry from a woman's point of view.

You come to the conclusion that, whatever the gap between Count Collalto and Gaspara Stampa in social terms, there was a bigger gap between them. And that it was Collalto who was punching above his weight. If you've read Shakespeare's Sonnets you should really give these a read. The best of them are the equal of anything Shakespeare wrote.

*Rilke's quote:
"...Have you imagined
Gaspara Stampa intensely enough so that any girl
deserted by her beloved might be inspired
by that fierce example of soaring, objectless love
and might say to herself, "Perhaps I can be like her?"