ABSTRACT
Gaspara Stampa's Rime, published in 1554, be situated in the heyday of Cinquecento Petrarchism, which has Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta as the most influential model, in terms of structure as well as in its underlying concept of love. Cicero's concept of different personae as he developed it in De officiis, and as it is highly relevant for parts of the Renaissance culture. For our purposes it is important to note that Cicero was not interested in a definition of individuality in the modern sense, but in a theory of fixed roles, which an individual would fill out within the social framework. Cicero understands the term persona as a 'mask' in the sense of a role. Gaspara Stampa's Rime refer to the existing models and are especially linked to Colonna's love poetry with its female recoding of the communicative stance and love constellation while simultaneously striving to surpass it.
