Vittoria Colonna (April 149225 February 1547), marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet. As an educated, married noblewoman whose husband was in captivity, Colonna was able to develop relationships within the intellectual circles of Ischia and Naples. Her early poetry began to attract attention in the late 1510s and she ultimately became one of the most popular poets of 16th-century Italy. Upon the early death of her husband, she took refuge at a convent in Rome. She remained a laywoman but experienced a strong spiritual renewal and remained devoutly religious for the rest of her life. Colonna is also known to have been a muse to Michelangelo Buonarroti, himself a poet.
Early life and marriage
Colonna was born at Marino in 1492, a fief of the Colonna family in the Alban Hills, near Rome. She was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the Kingdom of Naples, and of Agnese da Montefeltro, daughter of the Duke of Urbino. She was engaged in 1495 at the age of 3 years old to "Ferrante" Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, son of the marquese di Pescara, at the insistence of Ferdinand, King of Naples.
In 1501, the Colonna family's possessions and land were confiscated by Pope Alexander VI, and the family moved to Ischia, the home of Colonna's betrothed. In Ischia, Colonna received a typical humanist education in literature and the arts from Costanza d'Avalos, the aunt of her betrothed and gave early proof of a love of letters. Her hand was sought by many suitors, including the dukes of Savoy and Braganza, but she chose to marry d'Ávalos on the island of Ischia, on 27 December 1509. In Ischia, Vittoria Colonna became part of the literary circle of Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla, her husband's aunt.
The couple lived together in Ischia until 1511, when her husband offered his sword to the League against the French. He was taken captive in 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna and was conveyed to France. During the months of detention and the long years of campaigning that followed, Colonna and d'Avalos corresponded in the most passionate terms both in prose and verse, but only one poetic 'Epistle' to her husband has survived. Joseph Gibaldi has noted that Vittoria's poem to Ferrante was a direct imitation of Ovid's Heroides in which famous ancient women such as Dido and Medea address complaints to their absent lovers. Because it is the only extant poem by Vittoria Colonna before her husband's death, one may question whether her passionate verse reflected her true passion for her husband or were merely a stylish and scholarly reaction to a particular event. Also, it is known that Ferrante was not the most faithful husband since he had an affair with one of Isabella d'Este's ladies-in-waiting.
Between 1516 and 1522, Colonna lost three members of her family. Her younger brother, Federico, died in 1516, followed by her father, Fabrizio, in 1520 and her mother, Agnese, in 1522.
Colonna and d'Avalos seldom saw each other during their marriage since he was one of the most active and brilliant captains of Emperor Charles V. However, Colonna's influence was sufficient to keep her husband from joining the projected league against the emperor after the Battle of Pavia (1525) and to make him refuse the crown of Naples that had been offered to him as the price of his treason towards the French.
Colonna spent the summer of 1525 at her father's castle in Marino, where she fell ill, and she suffered illness for the rest of her life. It was during that time that she received an early manuscript copy of Baldessare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, which she had circulated around Naples. On 21 September, Castiglione wrote her a letter to lament that she had thus enabled the unpublished work to be partially transcribed, and the pirated version pushed Castiglione into hastening the publication of his book.
Widowhood (1525–1547) On 3 December 1525, Fernando died at Milan from the wounds that he had sustained at the Battle of Pavia. Colonna, who was hastening to tend him, received the news of his death at Viterbo She halted and retreated to the church of San Silvestro in Capite, in Rome, where there was a convent in the Order of Santa Chiara. Her request to take her vows and enter the convent was refused by Pope Clement VII and by her brother Ascanio, and she then returned to Ischia, where she remained for several years. Abigail Brundin has suggested Clement and Ascanio's motivations for refusing Colonna's request that they hoped for a future marriage to create another desirable political alliance. However, she refused several suitors and dedicated herself to writing poetry.