Works of Margherita Costa in the Folger Collection

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Margherita Costa (c. 1600 – after 1657) was an Italian Baroque singer, performer, and writer. Virginia Cox has described Costa as the "most distinctly 'seventeenth-century' of seventeenth-century female poets . . . , [whose works] are deserving of a far closer critical scrutiny than they have hitherto received" (213-214). Jessica Goethals and Sara Diaz have recently contributed to that critical work with their edition and translation of Costa's The Buffoons in The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series.


The Folger holds a significant collection of Costa's printed works, including

  • Istoria del viaggio d'Alemagna del serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana Ferdinando Secondo, Venice, [1630?]. Folger call number: 223098
  • Il violino, Frankfurt: per Daniel Wastch, 1638. Folger call number: 199908. Electronic version through Harvard University Library.
  • Per l’incendio di Pitti. Florence: Nella Stamperia nuoua, 1638. Folger call number: 262- 664q
  • Flora feconda, poema, Florence: Massi e Landi, 1640. Folger call number: 181821
  • La selva di Cipressi, Florence, 1640. Folger call number: 178228. Electronic version through Harvard University Library.
  • Li buffoni: Comedia ridicola, Florence: Massi e Landi, 1641. Folger call number: 169572
  • La tromba di Parnaso, Paris, 1647. Folger call number: 212505.1
  • Festa reale per balletto a cavallo, Paris: Craimoisy, 1647. Folger call number: 212505.2
  • La selva di Diana, Paris: Craimoisy, 1647. Folger call number: 212505.3


The following titles would complete our Costa holdings:

  • La Santa Cecilia, poema sacro, 1630
  • La chitarra, Frankfurt: per Daniel Wastch, 1638
  • Lettere amorose, Venice, 1639
  • Lo stipo, [The Jewel Box], Venice, 1639
  • La flora feconda drama, Florence: Massi e Landi, 1640
  • Cecilia martire poema sacro, Rome: Mascardi, 1644. Electronic version through Harvard University Library.
  • Gli amori della luna, Venice: Giuliani, 1654


References

Cox, Virginia, Women's Writing in Italy, 1400–1650, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

Natalia Costa-Zalessow, "Margherita Costa." In Seventeenth-Century Italian Poets and Dramatists. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale, 2008: 113-18.