Selected Letters, 1523–1546: A Bilingual Edition

The most celebrated woman writer of the Italian Renaissance, Vittoria Colonna was known for her elegant poetry and use of the sonnet form to explore pressing religious questions. The selection of Colonna’s letters presented here for the first time in a translated edition, written to and from writers, artists, popes, cardinals, employees, and family members, place Colonna at the center of intersecting epistolary networks as a political actor, a theo-logical thinker, a literary practitioner, and a caring friend. Revealing a historical woman speaking and acting with force in the world, they constitute a vital tool for anyone seeking to understand Colonna’s literary works.

This volume presents forty revealing personal letters written by Vittoria Colonna, who, as well as being a gifted and influential author, was a key figure in High Renaissance culture and in Italian efforts to reform the Church. The principal criterion for this representative selection is, as the authors define it in their Introduction, “the desire to present a variety of topics, styles, and addressees across the chronological arc of Colonna’s life.” This edition is based on careful scholarship and the translation is skillfully executed. It will provide both experienced and younger researchers with a more nuanced and worldly picture of a major early modern voice.

-Brian Richardson, Emeritus Professor of Italian Language, University of Leeds

ABIGAIL BRUNDIN is Professor of Italian at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. Catharine’s College. For the Other Voice Series she has edited and translated Vittoria Colonna’s Sonnets for Michelangelo (2005).

VERONICA COPELLO is currently Research Associate at the University of Insubria. She has published Valori e funzioni delle similitudini nell’Orlando Furioso (2013) and Vittoria Colonna: La raccolta di rime per Michelangelo (2020).

REVIEWS

Early Modern Women 18.2 (2024): 391–393. Reviewed by Ramie Targoff.
Modern Language Review 118.4 (2023): 626–628. Reviewed by Maria Serena Sapegno.
Roma nel rinascimento 2023: 170–171. Reviewed by Julia L. Hairston.