Edgarda Ferri, originally from Mantua, lives and works in Milan. A writer, essayist, and journalist, she made her literary debut in 1982 with the novel Dov'era il padre. In 1988, her book Il perdono e la memoria earned her the Walter Tobagi Prize and the gold medal of the Maria Cristina Literary Award. Holding a degree in Law and deeply passionate about history, Ferri applies the time-honored rules of journalism to her literary endeavors: thorough documentation, meticulous cross-checking of sources, and strict adherence to facts. She has written a succession of highly successful biographies that have established her as the leading exponent in Italy of this ancient and refined literary genre, of which her book Piero della Francesca stands out as a prime example. Her volume Imperatrix is dedicated to Flavia Giulia Elena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, while in Klimt she wrote a biography of the Viennese artist, framing his painterly oeuvre within the Central European cultural milieu between the late 19th century and the opening decades of the 20th century. In 2013, she published Il cuoco e i suoi re, a work dedicated to the French chef and writer Marie-Antoine Carême, followed in 2014 by Guanti bianchi. Between 2015 and 2023, she published La casa di Barbara, Un gomitolo aggrovigliato è il mio cuore, Ballata delle donne imperfette, La casa di Giulio Romano, Il racconto del Cortigiano and Il bambino di Salisburgo. In 2026, she authored the historical study La sventurata, centered on the historical figure of Marianna de Leyva, widely known as the Nun of Monza.

(photo: © Festivaletteratura)