ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Gaspara Stampa's language of desire may be read within a broader context of Neoplatonism rooted in Christian medieval traditions, rather than in the conventions of Marsilio Ficino and the abstract speculations on love popular in the Cinquecento. It explores the two facets, or what people might call the double-edged style, of Stampa's poetry, sublime realism, and possible sources for the style: Neoplatonism from late Antiquity, reinforced by the medieval Christian tradition, and Franciscan spirituality of the fourteenth century. A central theme in the modern criticism of Gaspara Stampa is how the poet, through her imitative strategies of Petrarch and of sixteenth-century Petrarchism, both integrates and dismisses Neoplatonic elements in her Rime. Petrarch is omnipresent from the very first poem, and a Neoplatonic frame characterizes the collection's imagery of light and darkness as well as the various meditations on the nature of love. The sadomasochistic tendencies in Stampa's songbook are a recurring theme in Bassanese's insightful reading.
