COLONNA, VITTORIA

Poet; b. Marino, near Rome, 1490; d. Rome, Feb. 27, 1547. In 1509 she married Ferrante d'Avalos, Marquis of Pescara. After his death (1525) from wounds received fighting for the emperor at the battle of Pavia, she passionately celebrated his memory in verses that won her contemporary renown but are now less admired; they are mostly sonnets in the Petrarchan tradition of Christianized Platonism. Very devout and deeply concerned for the reform of the Church, Vittoria divided the rest of her life between religious seclusion in various convents (at Orvieto, Viterbo, and Rome) and the cultivation of friendships with people—churchmen, scholars, and artists—who shared her own spiritual aspirations. She actively supported the Franciscan Capuchin reform and, until his apostasy, was in touch with Bernadino ochino; she knew Cardinals Reginald pole and Gasparo contarini and various members of the circle of Juan de valdÉs. During her stay at Viterbo (1541–44), she was drawn most into contact with Pole and other Catholic reformers who were trying to continue Contarini's efforts to find a via media between Catholic teaching on grace and the Lutheran position (see justice, double). Her purely religious poetry (the Rime spirituali ) belongs to these later years. Her most famous friendship, however, was with michelangelo, who celebrated her beauty, both physical and spiritual, in many poems similar to her own in their Christian-Platonist inspiration, though far more powerful and intense. She was a minor poet, but she has an honorable place in the history of Italian spirituality.

Bibliography: Works. v. colonna, Le Rime, ed. p. e. visconti (Rome 1840); Carteggio, ed. e. ferrero and g. mÜller, suppl. d. tordi (2d ed. Turin 1892). l. baldacci, ed., Lirici del Cinquecento (Florence 1957). Studies. g. toffanin, Il Cinquecento (4th ed. Milan 1950). "V. C.," Italia francescana, series 2., 22(1947) 1–134.

[k. foster]