Veronica Gambara (1485-1550) was one of the most celebrated lyric poets of early sixteenth-century Italy. Equally significant to her literary repute was her political standing as the dowager Countess of Correggio-a role she assumed upon her husband's death in 1519 and held to the end or her life. Gambara's early amorous poetry in the Petrarchan style led her to be hailed by Pietro Bembo as "the voice [...] that honors Brescia," while the poetry she composed throughout her governing years was deeply engaged in the political discourses of her time. Though she never published a collected edition of her poetry, Gambara produced an extensive oeuvre of vernacular verse that has been extensively anthologized. This book presents the first complete bilingual edition of Gambara's verse, with critical notes that illuminate her sophisticated literary interplay with the Petrarchan and Classical traditions. The critical introduction sheds light on the unique interrelationship between Gambara's cultural currency and her political power, as she drew on her literary talent to participate in the political arena to emerge as one of the first women poet-rulers of the Early Modern Italian tradition. "This edition brings all [Gambara's] poems together for the first time, provides a richly informed introduction filling in her biography, including her many social circles, and offers an excellent set of historical data and literary-critical references." -Ann Rosalind Jones Ester Cloudman Dunn Professor of Comparative Literature, Smith College