Editing Vittoria Colonna

{{short description|Italian poet and noble}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox noble
| name = Vittoria Colonna
| title = [[Marchioness]] of [[Pescara]]
| image = Sebastiano del Piombo - Vittoria Colonna (?) - Google Art Project.jpg
| image_size = 220
| successor = 
| birth_date = April 1490
| birth_place = [[Marino, Lazio|Marino]], [[Papal States]] {{small|(present-day Italy)}}
| caption = Vittoria Colonna, by [[Sebastiano del Piombo]], {{c.|1520}}
| CoA = 
| tenure = 
| predecessor = 
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1547|2|25|1490|4}}
| death_place = Rome, Papal States {{small|(present-day Italy)}}
| noble family = [[Colonna family|Colonna]]
| father = [[Fabrizio Colonna]]
| mother = [[Agnese da Montefeltro]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos|Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, Marquis of Pescara]]|1509|1525|end=d}}
| occupation = Poetess
| issue = 
}}

'''Vittoria Colonna''' (April 1492<ref>Some sources claim Vittoria Colonna was born in 1492. See {{cite web|url = https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0011.html|title = Colonna, Vittoria (1492–1547)|last = Brundin|first = Abigail|work = Italian Women Writers|publisher = University of Chicago Library|access-date = 4 July 2013|year = 2005}}</ref>{{snd}}25 February 1547), [[marchioness]] of [[Pescara]], was an Italian [[noblewoman]] and poet. As an educated and 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<ref name=":1">Gibaldi, Joseph. "Vittoria Colonna: Child, Woman, and Poet." In ''Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation''. Ed. Katharina Wilson. Athens, GA, 1987: pp. 23–24.</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025|reason=[[MOS:BIO]]}}

==Early life and marriage==
Colonna was born at [[Marino (RM)|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 [[Federico da Montefeltro|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 I of Naples|Ferdinand]], King of Naples.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=":1" />

In 1501, the [[Colonna family|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,<ref>Trollope, T. A. ''The Life of Vittoria Colonna. New York, 1859: p. 31.''</ref> and gave early proof of a love of letters. Her hand was sought by many suitors, including the dukes of Savoy and [[Jaime, Duke of Braganza|Braganza]], but she chose to marry d'Ávalos on the island of [[Ischia]], on 27 December 1509.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url = http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vittoria-colonna_(Dizionario-Biografico)/|title = Colonna, Vittoria|last = Patrizi|first = Giorgio|work = Trecanni, l'enciclopedia Italiana|language = it|location = Rome|series = Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani|year = 1982}}</ref> In Ischia, Vittoria Colonna became part of the literary circle of [[Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla]], her husband's aunt.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter = "Colonna, Vittoria" by Abigail Brundin|title = Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England|last = Robin|first = Diana Maury |author2=Anne R. Larsen |author3=Carole Levin|year = 2007|pages = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000unse_m4x6/page/87 87–90]|publisher = ABC-CLIO|isbn = 9781851097722|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ8mdTjxungC&pg=PA87|url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000unse_m4x6/page/87}}</ref>

The couple lived together in Ischia until 1511, when her husband offered his sword to the [[War of the League of Cambrai|League against the French]]. He was taken captive in 1512 at the [[Battle of Ravenna (1512)|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,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} but only one poetic 'Epistle' to her husband has survived.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0011.html|title = Colonna, Vittoria (1490–1547)|last = Brundin|first = Abigail|work = Italian Women Writers|publisher = University of Chicago Library|year = 2005|access-date = 1 July 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref>Gibaldi, Joseph. "Vittoria Colonna: Child Woman, and Poet." In ''Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation.''  Ed. Katharina M. Wilson. Athens, Georgia, 1987: p 29.</ref>  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.<ref>Luzio, Alessandro. "Vittoria Colonna." In ''Rivista Storica Mantovana.'' Volume I. (1885), 4–8.</ref>

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.<ref name=":0" />

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, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Carteggio|chapter-url = http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.15:2:19.iww|last = Charles V|publisher = Loescher|editor-last = Ferrero|editor-first = Ermanno |editor2=Giuseppe Müller |edition = 2nd|location = Turin|pages = 28–9|year = 1892|chapter = Letter, no. 20, Emperor Charles V to Vittoria Colonna, 26 March 1525}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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.<ref name=":0" />

==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}}

== Legacy ==
Though it was long believed that Colonna's poetry fell out of fashion after the 16th century, her poetry has been republished every century since, often in multiple editions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPAMXG_0NUYC&q=colonna|title=Lyric Poetry by Women of the Italian Renaissance|last=Cox|first=Virginia|date=14 June 2013|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1421409504|language=en}}</ref> Her ''Rime amorose'' have been shown to have inspired the Spanish-Neapolitan poet [[Francisco de Aldana]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Figuring Vittoria Colonna's Desirous Widow in Francisco de Aldana's 'Pues cabe tanto en vos del bien del cielo'|year = 2021|last = Lennon|first = Paul Joseph|journal = Romance Studies|volume = 39|issue = 4|pages = 208–20| doi=10.1080/02639904.2021.2002555 | s2cid=245426285 |doi-access = free|hdl = 10023/24574|hdl-access = free}}</ref>

==List of works==
[[File:1559 Colonna Rime.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The title page of a 1559 edition of Colonna's poetry.]]

=== Poetry ===
*{{Citation|title = Rime de la Divina Vittoria Colonna Marchesa di Pescara. Nuovamente stampato con privilegio|place = Parma|publisher = Al Dottisimo Messer Allessandro Vercelli Philippo Pirogallo|year = 1538|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Rime de la Diva Vettoria [sic] Colonna, De Pescara inclita Marchesana, Nuovamente [sic] aggiuntovi. XVI. Sonetti Spirituali, & le sue stanze|place = Florence|publisher = Nicolo d'Arisotile, detto il Zoppino, da Ferrara|year = 1539|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Rime de la Divina Vettoria [sic] Colonna de pescara inclita Marchesana nuovamente aggiuntovi XXIIII. sonetti Spirituali, & le sue stanze, & uno triompho de la croce di Christo non-piu stampato con la sua tavola|place = Venice|publisher = Per Comin de Trino ad instantia de Nicolo d'Aristotile detto Zoppino|year = 1540|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Dichiaratione fatta sopra la seconda parte delle Rime della Divina Vittoria Colonna [sic] Marchesana di Pescara. Da Rinaldo Corso...|place = Bologna|publisher = Gianbattista de Phaelli|year = 1543|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Le rime spirituali della illustrissima Signora Vittoria Colonna Marchesana di Pescara|url=http://publications.newberry.org/dig/rcp/media/le-rime-spirituali|place = Venice|publisher = Vincenzo Valgrisi|year = 1546|language = it}}

==== Published posthumously ====
*{{Citation|title = Le rime della Sig. Vittoria Colonna Marchesana Illustrissima di Pescara. Correte per M. Lodovico Dolce|place = Venice|publisher = Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari et Fratelli|year = 1552|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Pianto della Marchesa di Pescara sopra la passione di Christo. Oratione della medesima sopra l'Ave Maria... etc|place = Bologna|publisher = Manutio|year = 1557|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Tutte le Rime della Illustriss. et Eccellentiss. Signora Vittoria Colonna, Marchesana di Pescara. Con l'Espositione del Signor Rinaldo Corso, nuovamente mandate in luce da Girolamo Ruscelli|place = Venice|publisher = Giovan Battista et Melchior Sessa Fratelli|year = 1558|language = it}}
*[[File:Spirituali.jpg|alt=Le Rime Spirituali Della Illustrissima|thumb|''Le Rime Spiritvali Della Illvstrissima'']]{{Citation|title = Pianto della Marchesa di Pescara, sopra la Passione di Christo, con una Oratione della medesima, sopra l'Ave Maria. Oratione fatta il venerdi santo, sopra la passione di Christo|publisher = In Vinegia appresso Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari|year = 1563|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Quattordeci sonetti spirituali della illustrissima et eccellentissima divina Vittoria Colonna d'Avalos de Aquino Marchesa di Pescara|place = Venice|publisher = Scotto|year = 1580|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Rime spirituali della S. Vittoria Colonna, Marchesana Illustrissima di Pescara|place = Verona|publisher = Discepoli|year = 1586|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Rime|editor = Alan Bullock|place = Rome|publisher = Laterza|year = 1982|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Sonetti in morte di Francesco Ferrante d'Avalos, marchese di Pescara: edizione del ms. XII.G.43 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli|editor = Tobia R. Toscano|place = Milan|publisher = Mondadori|year = 1998|language = it}}
*{{Citation|title = Sonnets for Michelangelo|place = Chicago, IL|publisher = University of Chicago Press|year = 2005|editor = Abigail Brundin|language = en, it}}

==Modern editions==
* ''Fly Not Too High'' Sonnets of Gabrielle de Coignard & Vittoria Colonna translated by [[John Gallas]], Contemplative Poetry 6 (Oxford: SLG Press, 2022)

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Citation|last=Brundin |first=Abigail |title=Colonna, Vittoria (1490–1547)|year=2005 |publisher=University of Chicago Library |url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0011.html|place=Chicago}}
* {{Citation|last=Brundin |first=Abigail |title=Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation |year=2008 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing|place=Aldershot}}
* {{Citation|first = Vittoria|last = Colonna|title = Carteggio, with a supplement by Domenico Tordi|editor = Ermanno Ferrero |editor2=Giuseppe Müller|place = Turin|year = 1892|publisher = Loescher|url = http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/navigate.pl?iww.15|language = it, la|edition=2nd}}
* Cox, Virginia (2014), ''Lyric Poetry by Women of the Italian Renaissance'', ed., Johns Hopkins University Press
* {{Citation|last=Cox |first=Virginia |title=Women's Writing in Italy, 1400–1650 |year=2008 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|place=Baltimore}}
* {{Citation|last=Magalhães|first=Anderson |title=Le donne della Bibbia, la Bibbia delle donne. Teatro, letteratura e vita, Atti del XV Convegno Internazionale di Studio organizzato dal Gruppo di Studio sul Cinquecento francese, Verona, 16–19 ottobre 2009|year=2009 |publisher=Schena |pages=159–218|place=Fasano|article=All’ombra dell’eresia: Bernardo Tasso e le donne della Bibbia in Francia e in Italia|editor=R. Gorris Camos|language=it}}
* {{Citation|last=Musiol |first=Maria |title=Vittoria Colonna: A Woman's Renaissance, An Approach to Her Life and to Herself |year=2013|publisher=Epubli|place=Berlin| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xVxrAAAAQBAJ&q=Giulia+Gonzaga&pg=PA131|isbn=9783844257502 }}
* {{Citation|first = Giorgio|last = Patrizi|publisher = Instituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana|title = Dizionari Biografico degli Italiani|year = 1982|article = Colonna, Vittoria|volume = 27|url = http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vittoria-colonna_(Dizionario_Biografico)/|place = Rome|language=it}}
* {{Citation|title = Vittoria Colonna. Vita, fede e poesia nel secolo decimosesto|first = Alfredo|last = Reumont|editor = Giuseppe Müller and Ermanno Ferrero|place = Turin|publisher = Loescher|year = 1883|language = it}}
* {{Cite journal|title = The Breasts of Vittoria Colonna|year = 2012|url = http://escholarship.org/uc/item/13f38850|pages = 1–16|issue = 1|last = Robin|first = Diana|journal = California Italian Studies|volume = 3| doi=10.5070/C331009002 |issn = 2155-7926|doi-access = free}}
* {{Citation|last=Robin |first=Diana Maury |author2=Anne R. Larsen |author3=Carole Levin |title=Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England |year=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO }}
*{{EB1911|wstitle = Colonna, Vittoria |volume=6 |page=715}}
*{{cite CE1913|wstitle = Vittoria Colonna}}

==Further reading==
*{{Citation|title = Vittoria Colonna: With Some Account of Her Friends and Her Times|first = Maud F.|last = Jerrold|year = 1906|place = London|publisher = Dent|url = https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonnaw00jerruoft}}
*{{Citation|title = Vittoria Colonna|first = Jules|last = Lefèvre-Deumier|url = https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonna00lefgoog|year = 1856|place = Paris|publisher = L. Hachette|language = fr}}
*Och, Marjorie (1993). ''Art Patronage and Religious Reform in Sixteenth-Century Rome''. Diss. Bryn Mawr College.
*Och, Marjorie (2002). “Portrait Medals of Vittoria Colonna: Representing the Learned Woman,” in ''Women as Sites of Culture: Women’s Roles in Cultural Formation from the Renaissance to the 20th Century'', ed. Susan Shifrin, pp.&nbsp;153–66. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate. Collected in ''Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800'', pp.&nbsp;30–36, ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2013.
*Och, Marjorie (2001).  “Vittoria Colonna and the Commission for a ''Mary Magdalen'' by Titian,” in ''Beyond Isabella: Secular Women Patrons in Renaissance Italy'', eds. S. Reiss and D. Wilkins, pp.&nbsp;193–223. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press; reprinted 2002.
*Och, Marjorie (2011).  “Vittoria Colonna in Giorgio Vasari’s ''Life of Properzia de’ Rossi,''” in ''Wives, Widows, Mistresses, and Nuns in Early Modern Italy'', ed. Katherine McIver. ''' '''Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate.
*Roscoe, Maria. ''Vittoria Colonna: her Life and Poems''. 1868 [https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonnah00roscrich]
*{{Citation|first = Ramie|last = Targoff|title=Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna |year=2018 |publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux|place=New York}}
*{{Citation|first = Thomas Adolphus|last = Trollope|title = Life of Vittoria Colonna|url = https://archive.org/details/lifevittoriaco00trol|year = 1859|publisher = Houghton, Mifflin and Co.|place = Boston, MA}}
*{{Citation|first = Johann J.|last = Wyss|title = Vittoria Colonna: Leben, Wirken, Werke, eine Monographie|year = 1916|language = de|place = Frauenfeld|publisher = Huber & Co.|url = https://archive.org/details/vittoriacolonnal00wyssuoft}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.jimandellen.org/vcpoetry/vcbiblio.html Bibliography for Vittoria Colonna], compiled by Ellen Moody.
*{{librivox book|title=Historic Girlhoods}} (with a chapter on Vittoria Colonna)
* {{Librivox author |id=14857}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna, Vittoria}}
[[Category:1490s births]]
[[Category:1547 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Marino, Lazio]]
[[Category:Colonna family|Vittoria Colonna]]
[[Category:Italian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Italian women poets]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian nobility]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian women writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian writers]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance writers]]
[[Category:Michelangelo]]
[[Category:D'Avalos family]]
[[Category:Spirituali]]
[[Category:Muses (persons)]]
[[Category:Sonneteers]]