Editing Vittoria Colonna (section)

==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]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 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,<ref>{{Cite book|title = Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara: Vita, fede e poesia nel secolo decimosesto|last = von Reumont|first = Alfred|page = 88|year = 1892|editor-last = Müller|editor-first = Giuseppe and Ermanno Ferrero|language = it|publisher = Loescher|orig-year = 1883}}</ref> 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 were that they hoped for a future marriage to create another desirable political alliance.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation|year = 2008|isbn = 9780754690214|page = 23|last = Brundin|first = Abigail|publisher = Ashgate|location = Aldershot|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CxWQP4birrUC}}</ref> However, she refused several suitors and dedicated herself to writing poetry.

The [[Sack of Rome (1527)]] finally gave the Colonna family the opportunity to improve their relationship with the Medici pope, Clement VII, by offering help to the Roman population. However, when the French army attacked Naples, the whole house of Avalos took refuge on the island of Ischia.

Nine months after the sack of the papal city, the historian [[Paolo Giovio]] arrived on Ischia after he had been invited by Colonna, where he stayed until 1528. During his stay on the island, he wrote his unpublished ''[[Dialogus de viris ac foeminis aetate nostra florentibus]]'', which is set on Ischia between the end of September and the beginning of December 1527. In the third book of the dialogue, Giovio includes a ten-page [[encomium]] of Colonna.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Breasts of Vittoria Colonna|year = 2012|url = http://escholarship.org/uc/item/13f38850|last = Robin|first = Diana|journal = California Italian Studies|volume = 3|issue = 1|page = 5| doi=10.5070/C331009002 |issn = 2155-7926|doi-access = free}}</ref>

In 1529, Colonna returned to Rome and spent the next few years between that city, [[Orvieto]], Ischia and other places.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Moreover, she tried to correct the wrongs of her late husband by asking the house of Avalos to return to the abbey of Montecassino some wrongfully seized land.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Vittoria Colonna.jpg|thumb|right|235px|Vittoria Colonna, drawing by Michelangelo. Colonna was approximately 50 and Michelangelo 65 at the time of the drawing.]]

In 1532, before he died, Vittoria Colonna's cousin Cardinal [[Pompeo Colonna]] dedicated to her his ''Apologia mulierum'' (Women's Apologia), a treatise arguing that women should share in public offices and magistracies.
<ref>George Bull. Michelango. A Biography. 1995. p.273 St. Martin Press, New York</ref>

In 1535, her sister-in-law, [[Giovanna d'Aragona]], separated from Colonna's brother Ascanio and came to Ischia. Colonna tried to reconcile them, but even though Giovanna refused, both women became close, supported [[Juan de Valdés]] and tried to intercede for Ascanio when he [[Salt War (1540)|refused to pay salt tax]] to [[Pope Paul III]].<ref>{{Cite book|isbn = 9781851097722|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ8mdTjxungC|last = Robin|first = Diana Maury |author2=Anne R. Larsen |author3=Carole Levin|publisher = ABC-CLIO|year = 2007|page = 23|title = Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England|chapter = Aragona, Giovanna d'}}</ref>

At the age of 46, in 1536, she was back in Rome, where she won the esteem of Cardinals [[Reginald Pole]] and [[Contarini]] and began a passionate friendship with 61-year-old  [[Michelangelo Buonarrotti]]. The great artist addressed some of his finest sonnets to her, made drawings for her and spent long hours in her company. She created a gift manuscript of spiritual poetry for him.<ref>[Vittoria Colonna. ''Sonnets for Michelangelo''. Ed. Abigail Brundin. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2005.]</ref> Her removal to [[Orvieto]] and Viterbo in 1541, on the occasion of her brother's revolt against Paul III, produced no change in their relations, and they continued to visit and correspond as before.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

On 8 May 1537, Colonna arrived in [[Ferrara]] with some other women with the intention of continuing to travel to Venice and then to the [[Holy Land]].<ref>Colonna, ''Carteggio'', [[letter no. 85]], pp. 143–6.</ref> Her aim in Ferrara may have been to establish a [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] monastery for reforming monk [[Bernardino Ochino]] (who later became a [[Protestant]]).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} <ref>{{Cite book|title = Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara: Vita, fede e poesia nel secolo decimosesto|last = von Reumont|first = Alfred|url = https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonna01reumgoog|pages = 163–5|year = 1892|orig-year = 1883|editor-last = Müller|editor-first = Giuseppe and Ermanno Ferrero|language = it|publisher = Loescher|location = Turin}}</ref> Her health made Vittoria stay in Ferrara until February of the next year.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara: Vita, fede e poesia nel secolo decimosesto|url = https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonna01reumgoog|last = von Reumont|first = Alfred|year = 1892|orig-year = 1883|editor-last = Müller|editor-first = Giuseppe and Ermanno Ferrero|publisher = Loescher|location = Turin|pages = [https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonna01reumgoog/page/n31 159], 169}}</ref> Her friends ultimately dissuaded her from travelling to the Holy Land, and she returned to Rome in 1538.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Biographies of Good Women|last = Millington|first = Ellen J.|editor-first = Charlotte Mary|editor-last = Yonge|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=24Y4AAAAYAAJ|publisher = J. and C. Mozley|year = 1865|chapter = Vittoria Colonna, Marchesana di Pescara|location = London|page = 26| isbn=9780722217092 }}</ref>

She returned to Rome in 1544, staying as usual at the convent of San Silvestro and died there on 25 February 1547.

[[Pietro Bembo]], [[Luigi Alamanni]], [[Baldassare Castiglione]] and [[Marguerite de Navarre]] were among her literary friends. She was also on intimate terms with many of the members of the Italian reform movement, such as [[Pietro Carnesecchi]] and Ochino, but she died before the church crisis in Italy became acute. Although she was an advocate of religious reform, there is no reason to believe that her religious convictions were irreconcilable with those of the [[Catholic Church]] and that she ever became a Protestant.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}