Alla scoperta di Margherita Costa

In this paper, read for the opening of the Convegno Internazionale di Studi (L’Aquila, April 12, 2021), I trace the story of my discovery of the baroque poet Margherita Costa, that led to the publication of the anthology Voice of a Virtuosa and Courtesan, Selected Poems of Margherita Costa, which I edited, and in which I offer a selection of her more noteworthy poems. She was forgotten for many years and was not understood by the few critics who wrote about her, including Benedetto Croce. However, after reading her fourteen books, published between 1638 and 1654, I discovered not only a prolific writer but also a versatile and original one, who cultivated different literary genres, including humor, irony and satire, and who dared to compete and even engage in polemics with baroque poets. Margherita Costa is the only truly baroque Italian woman poet. To illustrate my conclusions, I give a series of examples of original themes used by Margherita.