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Updated 04-06-08
Vittoria Colonna,
Marchesa di Pescara (1490/92-1547)
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"LIKE IVY WHOSE SUPPORTS ARE BURNED AND BROKEN...."
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Vittoria Colonna was born into one of the major noble families of Rome. Before she was 4 years old, she was betrothed to Ferrante Francesco d'Avalos, Marquis of Pescara, two years older than she; the marriage took place in Naples in 1509.
The couple had about one year together before Pescara left Naples for northern Italy to join Vittoria's father in fighting for Emperor Charles V against the French; except for brief truces, the fighting continued for 15 years, so Pescara was seldom home. In 1525, the French were finally defeated, but Pescara died of wounds received in the last battle.
During her marriage, Colonna spent most of her time at her husband's court on the island of Ischia (near Naples), where, childless herself, she raised her husband's young cousin. She did, however, often travel to Rome and her family home, where she became friends with the leading poets of the period and began to write (Bernardo Tasso praised her poetry in a 1525 eulogy of d'Avalos). After 1530, Colonna made her permanent home in Rome, living in a series of convents but often returning to Ischia and traveling elsewhere in Italy and Sicily.
Like Marguerite de Navarre, with whom she corresponded, Colonna had developed by the early 1530s an interest in the religious reform of the church, an interest that would last until the end of her life. In the mid-1530's she used her ecclesiastical contacts to defend the Capuchins, a group of Franciscan friars who wished to live a more ascetic life. Then, from 1541 to 1544 she was a leading member of Reginald Pole's circle of humanists in Viterbo who sought both reform of the institutional Church and reconciliation with Protestants.
At least one of Colonna's extant poems was written before Pescara's death, but the great majority are from after 1525. After individual poems had circulated privately, her first collection was published in 1538, Rime de la Divina Vittoria Colonna Marchesa di Pescara; this contained 136 of the poems that would later come to be called rime amorose, praising the dead Pescara and mourning his loss. But in an edition of the following year, 16 "sonetti spirituali" were advertised, and later editions included an ever-increasing number of rime spirituali, reflecting the shift of Colonna's focus. The modern edition of her Rime contains 390 poems: 141 love poems, most written between 1526 and the early 1530's; 217 spiritual poems, from the 1530s and 1540s; and 32 epistolary poems.
As Colonna grew older, a friendship begun in the1530s with Michelangelo Buonarroti grew through visits and letters. In a 1551 letter Michelangelo wrote, "I have a little parchment book she gave me about ten years ago, in which there are a hundred and three sonnets"; this collection has only recently been edited and translated. The artist, in turn, wrote several poems to and about Colonna. At least one drawing of Colonna is by Michelangelo, and several of his images of Mary are believed to be based on her appearance.
All but one of the prose works published under Colonna's name are from her letters. Three letters to a young cousin were printed in 1544 as Litere della Divina Vettoria Colonna Marchesana de Pescara alla Duchessa de Amalfi (you can see the originals of these online). Ten years after Colonna's death, a letter to the Capuchin friar Bernardino Ochino was edited and printed as Pianto sopra la Passione di Cristo (Lamentation on the passion of Christ); the 1557 editors prudently removed all mention of Ochino, who had left Italy in 1542 and joined the followers of Calvin. The only non-epistolary prose by Colonna was published with Pianto; it was Oratione sopra l'Ave Maria, alla Madonna, a meditation on the prayer "Hail Mary."
No complete English translation of Colonna's writing has yet been published, but most of the poems can be found online and a good number of these are also in print. The poems (and the letters) show not only a mourning widow but also a woman whose religious belief extended to a deep concern for the welfare of her church.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. Ellen Moody has put her translations of most of Colonna's poems online, under the title "Amaro Lagrimar." For most, you can also link to the original Italian from an 1840 edition. This page offers links to the translations arranged by topic. Or you can click on the "Index of first lines" at the bottom of the page; there you'll have the poems in alphabetical order. For a taste of Moody's translations, these ten sonnets may suggest the trajectory of Colonna's poetic life:
(a) "In his light, the proud Eagle preened and combed its wings" (Nel mio bel Sol la vostre Aquila altera), addressed to Charles V soon after's Pescara's death.
(b) "I write to vent the inward pain" (Scrivo sol per sfogar l'interna doglia), given as the first poem in most editions of the rime amorose.
(c) "I can't let go the deeply-rooted faith" (Lasciar non posso i miei saldi penseri), a response to a poem by Veronica Gambara (you can link to the Gambara poem).
(d) "Your most pitiless enemies will have" (Poco avran di valor nimiche ed empie), addressed to Charles V, reminding of his need for God's assistance.
(e) "Gleaming reflections of fires off pale armor" (Veggio rilucer sol di armate squadre), sent to Pope Paul III in 1541, when his troops were besieging the town in which Colonna had been born.
(f) "For a long time I loved the world blindly" (Il cieco amor del mondo un tempo tenne), announcing the change in her poetry's focus.
(g) "That which the human mind can comprehend" (Quanto intender qui puote umano ingegno), addressed to Michelangelo and accompanying a drawing of the crucifixion.
(h) "Perhaps to some it will seem my speaking of eternal things" (Parra forse ad alcun, che non ben sano), justifying her spiritual poetry.
(i) "I seem to see His sacred torch aflame" (Parmi veder con la Sua face accesa) one of Colonna's reformist poems, against "politic warriors."
(j) "Like a ravenous bird who sees and hears" (Qual digiuno augellin, che vede ed ode), perhaps Colonna's most anthologized poem.
2. Other versions of the last poem given above, one of Colonna's most frequently anthologized verses:
(a) "I live on this depraved and lonely cliff," translated by Willis Barnstone.
(b) "I live upon this wretched solitary cliff," translated by A. S. Kline.
3. Links to each of the pages of Barry Collett's 2000 study A Long and Troubled Pilgrimage: The Correspondence of Marguerite d'Angouleme and Vittoria Colonna, 1540-1545. The entire study is of interest, but link to "Appendix B" for Collett's translation of three letters by Colonna and two by Marguerite de Navarre; "Appendix D" will give you the original Italian of the five letters (for more on Collett's book, see below, under "Secondary sources").
4. A link to the text of Maud F. Jerrold's 1906 biography, Vittoria Colonna, With Some Account of Her Friends and Her Times; although later research has made some of the information outdated, the book gives Jerrold's translation of a number of poems and several letters. You can also download the work as a PDF file. (For information on the print version, see "Secondary sources.")
5. At this alphabetical list from the University of Chicago's "Italian Women Writers" site, go to Colonna and click on "Texts Available" for links to the originals of Rime and of some of her correspondence: (1) a 1760 edition of Rime (which uses the traditional division of the poems into rime amorose, here called simply rime, and rime spirituali); (2) an 1892 edition of Carteggio, 124 letters by Colonna and 61 letters addressed to her (letters CLXVIII-CLXX were originally published in 1544 as Litere della Divina Vettoria Colonna Marchesana de Pescara alla Duchessa de Amalfi). You can also link to Lettere, an 1860 edition of 22 letters, but all of these are also given in Carteggio.
6. At the main page of Moody's site, you can link to "A Dark Voyage," made up of a 1995 essay on Colonna, a brief sketch about her husband, and a book chapter on Colonna's early years. You can also go to a 2003 bibliography of editions, translations and studies, and to a 1990/2004 essay, "On Translating Veronica Gambara and Vittoria Colonna."
7. Other essays, etc.:
(a) Abigail Brundin's biographical essay on Colonna provides an introduction to both the life and the work, with a 2005 bibliography of studies; you can also link to a list of editions of Colonna's work.
(b) In a 2001 essay, "Vittoria Colonna and the Virgin Mary," Brundin discusses Colonna's presentation of Mary as a strong, complex, and imitable woman in the letters to the Duchess of Amalfi, in the Pianto sopra la Passione di Cristo, and in the Oratione sopra l'Ave Maria.
(c) First see a c.1538 chalk drawing of Mary with the dead Jesus, which Michelangelo made for Colonna. Then at another site, a 1997 article by Alexander Nagel, "Gifts for Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna," which uses the drawing to discuss the friends' shared view of grace as a gift of God; Nagel translates passages from their letters and from Colonna's Pianto sopra la Passione di Cristo.
(d) In "Drawing Christ's Blood: Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna, and the Aesthetics of Reform" (2006), Una Roman D'Elia develops some of Nagel's points but sees in the works of the artist and the poet a greater ambivalence about the portrayal of suffering; in the article, D'Elia provides her translation of five of Colonna's poems, with the original given in the notes.
(e) A substantial article on Colonna, by Harriet Waters Preston and Louise Dodge, published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1893. Some of the historical information has been made outdated by later research, but the authors give their translations of over a dozen of Colonna's letters, including five to Michelangelo. You can link to the original page images or to a scanned version of the text.
(f) A review by Michael John Partington of a 2005 exhibition in Florence, "Vittoria Colonna and Michelangelo"; the review discusses Colonna's life and work.
8. Reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see under "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Colonna, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Elissa Weaver on Brundin' 2005 translation, Sonnets for Michelangelo
(b) Anne A. Hill on Diana Maury Robin's 2007 study, Publishing Women: Salons, the Presses, and the Counter-Reformation in Sixteenth-century Italy.
(c) Jean-Louis Quantin on Constance M. Furey's 2006 study, Erasmus, Contarini, and the Religious Republic of Letters.
(d) Patricia Phillippy on the 2005 essay collection, Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, & Italy.
(e) Maria Galli Stampino on Irma B. Jaffe's 2002 study, Shining Eyes, Cruel Fortune: The Lives and Loves of Italian Renaissance Women Poets.
(f) Fiora A. Bassanese on the 2000 essay collection, A History of Women's Writing in Italy
(g) Elissa B.Weaver on the 2000 collection, Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society.
(h) Deborah Parker on William J. Kennedy's 1994 study, Authorizing Petrarch.
9. Contemporary portraits:
(a) At top, a 1520s portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo; then see the third image, a portrait of Colonna in mourning clothes, by Cristoforo dell'Altissimo, probably from the 1550s.
(b) A 1540s chalk drawing by Michelangelo.
(c) An etching, after a 1540s portrait by Girolamo Muziano.
(d) A c.1510 portrait by Piombo, believed by some to be Colonna.
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[Abigail Brundin has edited and translated the manuscript of 103 rime spirituali sent to Michelangelo in the early 1540s, presenting the originals and translations on facing pages. Brundin's introduction and notes focus on Colonna's use of the teachings of the contemporary reformers, particularly the belief in justification by faith alone. The indexes are helpful, and the detailed bibliography appears to include all earlier English-language studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Colonna, Vittoria. Sonnets for Michelangelo: a bilingual edition
/ edited and translated by Abigail Brundin (The other voice in
early modern Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
(xxxi, 197 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ4620 .A24 2005; ISBN:0226113914, 0226113922
Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-186) and indexes
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[Laura Anne Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie have translated
for their anthology 16 of Colonna's poems (with the originals
on facing pages): 14 sonnets, 1 longer poem, and an excerpt from
the 1512 verse epistle to her husband. Only four of the poems
are given in Brundin above. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies &
Courtesans. Edited by Laura Anna Stortoni. Translated by Laura
Anna Stortoni & Mary Prentice Lillie. NY:Italica Press, 1997.
LC#: PQ4225 .E8 S838 1997; ISBN: 0934977437
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[This anthology includes translations, by Joseph Gibaldi, of 12 of Colonna's sonnets (10 of which are not in Brundin) and excerpts from two longer poems; Gibaldi's introduction gives useful background information. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers of the Renaissance and Reformation / edited
by Katharina M. Wilson. Athens: University of Georgia Press,
c1987. (xl, 638 p.)
LC#: PN6069.W65 W63 1987; ISBN: 082030865X, 0820308668
Includes bibliographies and index
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"You men, driven by rage, considering nothing but your honor...."
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[From a verse epistle to her husband, composed in 1512 after the battle of Ravenna, in which her father and her husband were captured (and later freed); this is the only poem that we are sure was written before 1525. For the original of the whole poem, see online, "Eccelso mio signor, questa ti scrivo":]
My most noble lord, I write you this
to recount to you how sadly---and amid so many
uncertain desires and harsh torments---I live.
I did not expect pain and sorrow from you....
Love of my father and love of you,
like two famished and furious snakes,
have always lived, gnawing, in my heart....
Others called for war, I always for peace,
saying it was enough for me if my marquis
remains quietly at home with me.
Your uncertain enterprises do not hurt you;
but we who wait, mournfully grieving,
are wounded by doubt and by fear.
You men, driven by rage, considering nothing
but your honor, commonly go off, shouting,
with great fury, to confront danger.
We remain, with fear in our heart and
grief on our brow for you; sister longs for
brother, wife for husband, mother for son....
You live happily and know no sorrow;
thinking only of your newly acquired fame,
you carelessly keep me hungry for your love.... [Gibaldi,
pp. 34-35]
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"Now all is dark wherever I may turn."
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[Here, Colonna mourns her husband's death. To see the original, click on "An image of the Italian text" at "Quanti dolci pensieri, alti desiri" :]
How many loving thoughts, what high desires
My heart was fed by that most noble sun
Who scattered all the clouds till daylight shone.
Now all is dark wherever I may turn.
Sweet were the tears and pleasing were the sights
Inspired in me by this brief sojourn:
Wise words were his; and when on me he turned
His eyes, they calmed, in part, my martyr's fires.
Now I see valor quenched, virtue destroyed,
Which once was loved, and many noble minds
Bewildered, grieving over this great loss.
Since his departure every soul is void
Of antique love for honor; in my mind
Banished forever all its former joys.
[Stortoni & Lillie, p.57]
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"...the soul whose thoughts are bound to earth..., raging
within."
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[In "Qual edera a cui sono e rotti ed arsi," Colonna moves from human loss to spiritual aspiration. She sees the soul as uprooted ivy, Christ's cross as its supporting frame:]
Like ivy whose supports are burned and broken
From which it used to draw its inner strength,
Now turning on itself in futile circles---
For it finds nothing which can raise it up---
Likewise the soul whose thoughts are bound to earth,
Involved in earthly goods, raging within;-
Because, towards that fair sign to which our nature
Aspires, human supports are low and scarce,
Until it runs to find the glorious tree
Of our salvation, where it should be bound
From its dark roots up to the highest peak,
Twisted, united to that sacred frame;
It longs to see the Father, where He first
Had bound it to Himself with loving knots. [Stortoni
& Lillie, p.73]
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"...so weighted down that it sails in grave danger."
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[When the humanist Pope Paul III was elected in 1534, reformers' hopes were high, although Paul's efforts would be thwarted for years (and when serious reform did begin in the mid-1540s, it would include none of the reconciliation that Colonna and her friends had hoped for). Writing "Veggio d'alga e di fango omai si carca" in 1540/41, Colonna pleads with the Apostle Peter for help:]
I see your net so laden with weeds and mud,
Peter, that if some wave
breaks over it or engulfs it
it may be torn and endanger your boat,
for it does not, as it should, float easily,
light and unburdened, over the turbulent sea,
but rather, in bow and stern, from one shore to the other,
is so weighted down that it sails in grave danger.
Your noble successor, elected by
just reason, often turns his heart and his hand
to the task of guiding the boat to port;
but the wickedness of others
swiftly pits itself against his will, so that all now realize
that without your help he acts in vain. [Brundin,
p.137]
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"Cursed century and evil harpies...."
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[In "Veggio di mille ornati veli avolto" Colonna
again expresses her anger and fear, now coming close to despair
(the original is not available online):]
I see the clear and pure truth shrouded
in a thousand ornate veils, and with a thousand
false bright sparks of pity
I see the bitter heart assume a sweet face.
I hear a thousand false sirens calling all around,
and I know that flattery or fate assigns them
to unmerited ranks, and I hear trumpets and bells
sounding out for that which is already buried alive.
Cursed century and evil harpies,
where honor, life time, and riches
appear to the eye yet are absent in the heart.
If God, with his eternally justified and pious arms,
does not now break apart so many complex knots,
his holy hand will never again untie them. [Brundin,
pp.123-25]
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"To me, who seem to move about unburdened and free...."
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[Reginald Pole (1500-1558) had been Colonna's friend and advisor from shortly after his arrival in Italy in 1532. His mother, Margaret Plantagenet and Countess of Salisbury, was imprisoned by Henry VIII in 1539. Sometime before his mother's execution in 1541, Colonna sent Pole this sonnet, "Figlio e signor, se la tua prima e vera":]
My son and master, if your first and true
mother abides in prison, yet still her wisdom
is not stolen from her, nor is her noble spirit defeated,
nor are the many virtues taken from her unconquered companions.
To me, who seem to move about unburdened and free
and to keep my heart confined and buried in a small plot,
I pray you turn your eyes from time to time
so that your second mother does not perish.
You walk upon the open spacious fields
of heaven, and no shadow or rock
can now delay or obstruct your swift progress.
I, burdened by my years, am frozen here; therefore you
who are aflame with divine fire, pray humbly on my behalf
for help from our common father. [Brundin,
p.135]
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"...as Lord, ...as son, ...as husband, ...as father."
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[In a manuscript collection of Colonna's poems that was sent to Marguerite of Navarre in about 1540, this sonnet,"Vergine pura, che dai raggi ardenti," was given as the first poem. It picks up on a theme used by Navarre in her 1531 Miroir de l'ame pecheresse, on a three-fold relationship with God (in Navarre's work, the relationship had been her own connection to God as daughter, sister, and wife):]
Pure Virgin, you who in the burning rays
of the true sun bask in eternal day,
whose beautiful light, during your toilsome earthly life,
kept your lovely eyes serene and contented;
you beheld him, both man and God, when his
bright spirits adorned his humble dwelling
with a great light, and your ministers timidly
gathered round intent on their great office.
Immortal God hidden in a mortal veil,
you worshipped him as Lord, nurtured him as son,
loved him as husband, and honored him as father;
therefore, pray to him now that my sad days
may be transformed to joy, and may you, lady of heaven,
act as a mother to me in this my desire. [Brundin,
pp.131-33]
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"The men, ... though strong, were shut up together in fear."
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[Finally, "La bella donna, a cui dolente preme," on Mary Magdalene, visiting Jesus' tomb while the male disciples were in hiding. In all her writing, it is Magdalene with whom Colonna most identifies ("mia Maddalena"):]
Seized in her sadness by that great desire
which banishes all fear, this beautiful woman,
all alone, by night, helpless, humble, pure,
and armed only with a living, burning hope,
entered the sepulcher and wept and lamented;
ignoring the angels, caring nothing for herself,
she fell at the feet of the Lord, secure,
for her heart, aflame with love, feared nothing.
And the men, chosen to share so many graces,
though strong, were shut up together in fear;
the true Light seemed to them only a shadow.
If, then, the true is not a friend to the false,
we must give to women all due recognition
for having a more loving and more constant heart.
[Gibaldi, p.42]
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[Although she is discussed throughout the book, two chapters of Diana Robin's study of women's writing in mid-1500s Italy deal directly with Colonna. The first, "Ischia and the Birth of a Salon," describes her participation in the literary circles of southern Italy and translates two of her letters of 1538-40. Another chapter, "Rome: The Salt War Letters of Vittoria Colonna," discusses and translates five letters written by Colonna to her brother in 1541, as she tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent his defeat in a war with Pope Paul III over an increase in taxes ordered by the pope. All quoted passages are given in Robin's own translation and in the original. (See the book's table of contents online.)]
Robin, Diana Maury. Publishing women: salons, the presses,
and the Counter-Reformation in sixteenth-century Italy (Women
in culture and society) . Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2007. (xxvi, 365 p.: ill.)
LC#: Z340 .R628 2007; ISBN: 9780226721569
Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-344) and index
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[Constance M. Furey's study of 1500s humanist reformers includes discussion of Colonna's incorporation of theological and philosophical questions in her poetry (pp. 98-122) and of her correspondence with Michelangelo, Marguerite of Navarre, Reginald Pole, and the diplomat and reformer Gasparo Contarini (pp. 122-32). Passages from Colonna are given in Furey's translation; for the poetry and for some of the prose, the original is given in the notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Furey, Constance M. Erasmus, Contarini, and the religious
republic of letters. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
(xiv, 255 p.)
LC#: BX1795.I57 F87 2006; ISBN: 052184987X
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-245) and index
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[This collection includes Virginia Cox' "Women Writers and the Canon in Sixteenth-century Italy: The Case of Vittoria Colonna," which describes how Colonna's poetry was so quickly accepted by the male literary establishment and what this meant for other women writers. The bibliographical notes provide a thourough survey of earlier studies. (See the book's table of contents online):]
Strong voices, weak history: early women writers & canons
in England, France, & Italy / Pamela Joseph Benson &
Victoria Kirkham, editors. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, c2005. (viii, 380 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN715 .S76 2005; ISBN: 0472098810, 0472068814
Results of a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania
in March 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index
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[Available online, Abigail Brundin's 2001 article shows, in much greater detail than does the introduction to her 2005 translation, Colonna's presentation of Mary as a strong, complex, and imitable woman. She discusses the as-yet-untranslated group of letters to the Duchess of Amalfi, the Pianto sopra la Passione di Cristo, the Oratione sopra l'Ave Maria, and in less detail, the manuscript collection sent to Marguerite of Navarre. Quoted passages are not translated but are generally made clear in the discussion. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Brundin, Abigail. Vittoria Colonna and the Virgin Mary.
Modern Language Review, 96 (January 2001), 61-81.
LC#:PB1 .M65; ISSN: 0026-7937
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[In this print version of a work available online, Barry Collett studies the extant letters (three by Colonna and two by Marguerite of Navarre) exchanged between 1540 and 1545. Collett sees the correspondence as illustrating the efforts of moderate Catholics to both reform their church and find an acceptable kind of spirituality. Appendices give the five letters in the original Italian and in English. Unfortunately, the book has no index:]
Collett, Barry. A long and troubled pilgrimage: the correspondence
of Marguerite d'Angouleme and Vittoria Colonna, 1540-1545 (Studies
in reformed theology and history; new ser., no. 6). Princeton,
NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary, c2000. (xix, 155 p.)
LC#: BR305.2 .C63 2000; ISBN:1889980099
Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-155)
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[Sara M. Adler's article looks at Colonna's letters to women and at some of her rime spirituale and finds (especially in the letters) a presentation of women, such as the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as more independent and active than could be found in more traditional contemporary religious literature:]
Adler, Sara M. Strong Mothers, Strong Daughters: The Representation
of Female Identity in Vittoria Colonna's Rime and Carteggio.
Italica, 77 (2000), 311-30.
LC#:PC1068.U6 I8; ISSN: 0021-3020
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[Irma B. Jaffe's collection of biographies includes one on Colonna, which gives both the Italian and translations by Jaffe and Gernando Colombardo of 10 sonnets and most of the 1512 verse epistle to her husband. With the book is a CD that includes readings in Italian of five of Colonna's poems. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Jaffe, Irma B. Shining eyes, cruel fortune: the lives and
loves of Italian Renaissance women poets / Irma B. Jaffe with
Gernando Colombardo. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.
(xxx, 429 p., 8 p. of plates: ill. (some col.), maps; 26 cm.
+ 1 CD (4 3/4 in.)
LC#: PQ4063 .J34 2002; ISBN: 0823221806, 0823221814
Includes bibliographical references (p. [411]-415) and indexes
--------------------
[Two essays in this history deal with Colonna's writing: Maria Luisa Doglio's on her letters and Giovanni Rabitti's on her poetry. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
A history of women's writing in Italy
/ edited by Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood. Cambridge [England];
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. (xvi, 361 p.)
LC#: PQ4055.W6 H57 2000; ISBN: 0521570883, 0521578132
Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-350) and index
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[William J. Kennedy's study includes a section on Colonna (pp.114-34) which gives a close reading of four sonnets in order to demonstrate that although Colonna used Petrarchan devices, she was able to go beyond imitation to create her own style. The sonnets discussed are given in both the original and in Kennedy's translation:]
Kennedy, William J. Authorizing Petrarch. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1994. (xiii, 301 p.)
LC#: PQ4535 .K46 1994; ISBN: 0801429749
Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-294) and index
--------------------
[Rinaldina Russell's article discusses Colonna's use of the image
of ascent and how it changes from the early to the later sonnets.
Russell does not translate from the Italian, but her discussion
makes the meaning clear:]
Russell, Rinaldina. The mind's pursuit of the divine: A survey
of secular and religious themes in Vittoria Colonna's sonnets.
Forum Italicum, 26:1 (Spring 1992), 14-27.
LC#: PC1001 .F6 v. 26; ISSN: 0014-5858
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[One essay in this collection, "Vittoria Colonna as Role Model for Cinquecento Women Poets," by Giovanna Rabatti, discusses the possible influence of Colonna's poetry on writers later in the century, including Chiara Matriani, Veronica Franco and Isabella Andreini. Rabatti gives her prose translations of three of Colonna's poems, in full or in part. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women in Italian Renaissance culture and society / edited
by Letizia Panizza (Legenda). Oxford: European Humanities Research
Centre, 2000. (xxi, 523 p : ill, facsims, ports)
LC#: HQ1149.I8 W66 2000; ISBN:1900755092
Includes bibliographical references
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[An older (1906) but still generally reliable biography of Colonna, by Maud F. Jerrold, includes translations of many of the poems and several letters; for the poems, the Italian original is also given. The work is also available online:]
Jerrold, Maud F. Vittoria Colonna, with some account of her
friends and her times (Select bibliographies reprint series).
Freeport, N.Y., Books for Libraries Press [1969]. (336 p. geneal.
tables, ports.)
LC#: DG540.8.C8 J5; ISBN: 836951530
Reprint of the 1906 ed. Bibliography: p. 322-326
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Updated 04-06-08