Valeria Tocco is a Full Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Literature at the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics of the University of Pisa. Besides contributions to linguistics and translation studies, she has been interested in modern and contemporary literature and she dedicated her research to the 16th-17th centuries, producing scholarly works mainly of philological nature. She dedicated a large number of essays to Luís de Camões, including the commented edition of the epic poem Os Lusíadas (Milan, 2001), and a monograph on the handwriting tradition of the poem (Os Lusíadas: dos manuscritos à princeps, Coimbra, 2012). She is the author of a short history of Portuguese literature from its origins to the present day (Rome, 2011).
Tocco has translated prose and poetry, including Fernando Pessoa’s Book of disquiet (Milan, 2011). Moreover, in 2011 she won the first prize in a poetic translation (Macrolibrarsi section) at the Literary Award City of Forlì (8th edition). In 2019, the translation of the 17th theatrical text by Francisco Manuel de Melo, The Aspiring Gentleman, executed with Sofia Morabito, was awarded the first Claris Acerbi 2019 Prize for literary translation.