Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages Raised Faculty Building University of Cambridge Sidgwick Avenue Cambridge CB3 9DA United Kingdom
Anna completed her BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Italian) at Clare College, Cambridge, during which time she spent a year in the Collegio Ghislieri at the University of Pavia. She continued her studies at Clare College with an MPhil in European Literature and Culture. Her studies primarily revolved around writing for and by women in early modern Italy and included dissertations on courtesans’ dress in Renaissance Venice, Petrarchan beauty ideals in cosmetic recipes, the role of women speakers in court entertainment, and marketing strategies used by ‘poligrafi’, like Lodovico Domenichi, to sell women writers and attract women readers in the sixteenth-century book market. She is currently a PhD candidate, supported by an AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.
Other activities:
Lecturer and supervisor for small groups of BA students in Italian art, literature, and film. Lectures on Castiglione and sixteenth-century Italian courts.
Assistant Editor for ‘Women Language Literature in Italy / Donna Lingua Letteratura in Italia’. See here.
Co-convenor of ‘Writing Women in History’, an AHRC-funded reading group. See here.
Co-organiser, musical director, publicity manager, and performer for several conferences, workshops, and concerts:
- ‘Intersections: Between Music and Theatre in Seicento Italy’, two-day conference with public concert and commedia dell’arte theatre workshop, September 2018. See here.
- 'Translation as Music | Music as Translation', public keynote lecture and concert as part of 'Women, Language(s) and Translation in the Italian Tradition' conference, November 2018. See here.
- ‘Reaching Through Time: Approaches to Women in History Today’, one-day symposium and concert to mark Women’s History Month, March 2018. See here.
- ‘Amore, Magia, Follia in the Orlando furioso: A Musical Quest’, concert as conclusion to ‘The Fortunes of the Orlando furioso, 1516-2016’ series of public events, November 2016. See here.
Collaborator for book exhibition ‘The Fortunes of the Orlando furioso, 1516-2016’, November 2016. See here.
Collaborator for book exhibition: ‘The Fortunes of the Orlando furioso, 1516-2016’. See here.
Anna's doctoral research is focused on the work of Margherita Costa (c.1600-c.1657). Costa was one of the most prolific female authors of the Seicento, making her way in the courts of Rome, Florence, Turin and Paris as a ‘virtuosa’, a singer-actress, and courtesan. She published fourteen works across radically different genres and ventured into territories explored by few other early modern women writers, constantly bending the rigid rules of female decorum. This eclectic female figure inspired admiration in contemporary writers and patrons, but has been neglected by modern-day scholarship.
Her PhD project is perfectly suited to her academic interests in general, as it offers the possibility of interdisciplinary research, connecting literature and music, and encompasses diverse topics, like women’s conduct and education, as well as contributing to the ongoing effort of reclaiming the lost voices of early modern women writers throughout Europe.