In this article I present a portion of my work in progress on the “hidden” Armenian identity of the poetess Vittoria Aganoor. The largest obstacle in pursuing this task is the fact that Vittoria Aganoor’s archives are spread all over Italy due to her various stays. I began working on Aganoor’s Armenian identity in 2010, presenting the first results during the International Student Workshop on the Armenian Diaspora at Boston University. Since then, I have been continuing my research at the library of the Mechitarist Congregation of San Lazzaro, the Marciana Library in Venice, the Matenadaran, the Museum of Art and Literature of Armenia, and finally, the State Archive of Perugia. In these various institutions, I have perused pages and pages of archival material: letters, manuscripts, postcards, photos, and the Armenian and Italian press from the end of the 1800s to the beginning of the 1900s. All the quotations I make in this article are unpublished and taken from the private correspondence of the poetess. Aganoor has received a great deal of critical attention as an Italian poet. Benedetto Croce says about Aganoor’s Leggenda Eterna that, “It is the most beautiful collection of poems ever written by an Italian women,” and Antonia Arslan called her “the queen of writing”. The purpose of this study is to cast more light on her Armenian identity. In the beginning of my article I mention that the relationship between Father Ghazikian and Vittoria became more important especially when the Mechitarist
monk began to translate her writings. Future research could include the role that translation can play in the rediscovery of cultural identity and the publication of Aganoor’s correspondence with Father Arsen Ghazikian.