Naming Sappho: Gaspara Stampa and the Recovery of the Sublime in Early Modern Europe

Abstract

A paucity of biographical information about Gaspara Stampa limits from documenting her connections with the literary personalities, or even from certifying whether she dealt directly with each of them. Measured against literary amateurs in her salon environment, Stampa hones her professional credentials as she cultivates an entrepreneurial outlook, focuses on her artistic development, masters the technical skills of her craft, and theorizes the significance of her work. Stampa's concern is to focus her skills upon expressing her love for Collaltino, the theme that dominates her attention, in contrast to the scattered 'maggior cose' that divert Domenico Venier's attention. The concentration distinguishes Stampa's professionalism from her addressee's amateur diversions. Girolamo Parabosco's lyric poems balance contrasting tones and stylistic elements. Their Petrarchan diction alternates with colloquial Venetian vernacular and their grammatical structures range from simple paratactic strings of words and phrases to complex, often convoluted, hypotactic sentences and clauses.

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