SOURCE: Adler, Sara M. “Strong Mothers, Strong Daughters: The Representation of Female Identity in Vittoria Colonna's Rime and Carteggio.” Italica: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian 77, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 311-30.

[In the following essay, Adler argues that Colonna's poems and letters reveal pride in her gender and an intention portray it favorably. Adler also shows how Colonna presents attractive images of herself and other women, and examines how her positive sense of female identity serves as a model for contemporary women writers.]

In her essay “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” Joan Kelly answers her question in the negative with a compelling argument about women's subordination and silencing during this period by the dominant male order. While to be sure her essay represents a benchmark view, over the years feminist thinkers have modified Kelly's vehement “no” by taking note of Renaissance women who overcame, to some degree at least, the limitations imposed by patriarchy.¹ These women found strategies for leading productive lives, as well as effective means of self-expression. They succeeded in calling attention to their own worth and to the worth of their gender.

There is no more appropriate example of female effectiveness in the Italian Renaissance than that of Vittoria Colonna, who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century (1492-1547).² A noblewoman and extremely devout, Colonna was involved in the most momentous issues of her day. She played a central role in Italy's religious reform movement—no doubt influenced by and part of the tradition of female religious activism that went back to the origins of Christianity. Also, she was one of the first, if not the first, women of the Italian Renaissance to enter the male dominated literary arena. While like all women of her time she was of course subjected to the patriarchal power structure, in groundbreaking ways she countered the subordination and silencing of her gender.

Colonna countered the limitations posed to her gender, moreover, as a woman, clearly confident and proud of being one. She gained a broad reputation in her time, not only for qualities that were traditionally identified with males, but also—and largely so—for female qualities, qualities of difference from those attributed to men. She presented herself, was perceived and well received, in distinctively female roles that connoted strong, active virtue: for example, as supportive wife and later as devoted widow, as zealous religious “discepola,” and also as protective adoptive mother to religious causes and celebrated religious leaders.³

Colonna's positive presentation of herself is also a feature of her writing. In her poems, letters, and other prose pieces, she constructs her own distinctively female literary persona that, parallel to her real life roles, assumes those of wife and widow, and also of ardent lover of Christ. In complement, moreover, she populates her writing with a number of highly admirable female figures who represent female gender favorably in a general sense, demonstrating that her pride extends beyond herself as an individual. The women Colonna admires and uses to represent the positive qualities of her gender are all high ranking (noble and devout like herself and, more frequently, actual Christian divinities), a set of choices that might seem quite conservative and elitist. Yet Colonna's selections are to be expected, for her female figures reflect the tastes and expectations of the cultural elite for which she wrote and to which she herself belonged. And for this conservative and mostly patriarchal audience, religious devoutness was of paramount importance in the context of women's behavior, coupled with an equally important standard of high social respectability. Thus, consideration of particular women outside of these criteria, women of other classes or women virtuous for secular reasons, was simply not an issue for her or for her readers. Colonna both shared her audience's convictions and, at the same time, wrote in a way that shows her astute understanding of its expectations. This is not to say, however, that her selection of regal exemplars diminishes by any means her pride in her gender and her clear intention to portray it positively. These figures serve as universal representatives whose presence in Colonna's texts speaks on behalf of the qualities of female gender as a general category. Her praise may seem like a small, narrowly-based step, but in a sense it was the only step she could take. And, as the first woman writing in Renaissance Italy, a writer who was enormously successful in getting her message out, it was a crucial step.

In this essay we will consider various aspects of Colonna's advocacy of the value of her gender in her writing. We will see how, through the portrayals of her exemplary female figures along with her portrayal of herself, she conveys a highly attractive image of her gender. We will also look closely at precisely how these figures affect her, how they influence her in the modeling of her own positive sense of herself. And in the final part of the essay, we will examine how Colonna's positive sense of female identity serves in its turn as a model for the contemporary and future women who followed her into the literary arena.

By far the greatest number of those represented in Colonna's letters are important members of the male establishment.⁴ However, women are also present in significant numbers. Colonna wrote on many occasions to female relations and acquaintances about family and business matters, and sometimes on religious issues as well. While these are for the most part rather matter-of-fact letters, others exist—to both female and male addressees—specifically about women, where Colonna's intention is to focus on her subjects' outstanding qualities.

Marguerite d'Angoulême, the Queen of Navarre, is a figure whom Colonna both addresses and portrays. The two women never met, although they expressed the desire to and had much in common. Both were born into privilege and were highly respected and confident in their roles in the social establishment. Both were reputed for their devoutness, and involved in the religious reform movements of their respective countries. And both expressed pride in their gender. Their correspondence reflects these shared views as well as their reciprocal admiration for one another.⁵ In the four letters found in the Carteggio (we shall consider the two Colonna sent to the Queen), they write of the Church's corruption and repeatedly contrast the world's ephemeral nature with the eternal nature of the spiritual realm, outer reality with inner reality. At the same time, they both advance the notion of the outstanding nature of their own gender because of its association with the spiritual dimension.

In letter 112, as it is numbered in the Carteggio (185-88), Colonna expresses the desire to meet the Queen in person. She tells Marguerite that she sees her as her guide in this life, a sort of spiritual mother. Colonna's emphasis here is on exemplary female behavior and of her own need of it: “parendomi che gli essempii del suo proprio sesso … a ciascuno sian più proportionati, et il seguir l'un l'altro più lecito” (186). In this context, Colonna praises the nature of her choice of Marguerite as a guide by calling attention to the fact that she is a woman whose equal is not to be found in Italy, and who is in fact the agreed on “norma,” the standard for the virtuous ladies Colonna has turned to learn from and imitate (186). Colonna's praise entails attributing to Marguerite a sense of divinity, as when she compares the beneficent effects of a previous letter to her from the Queen to those of God's manna and water showered down on the Hebrews. And later, Colonna alludes to her own potential role in preparing the way for the eventual visit of the Queen to Italy with a reference to the way John the Baptist preceded and prepared the way for Christ. While, as Itala Rutter rightly states, attributes of divinity like these were common in the Renaissance (306), Colonna's depiction of a female presence overlaid on traditional male personages dramatically spotlights Marguerite's “divine” female exemplarity. Also letter 119 (200-02) expresses admiration. Colonna likens her addressee to a “bello edificio” of worldly qualities (“La dottrina … le doti dell'intelletto …”) whose summit is religion (“sopra tutte queste cose è da reverire la religione, come suprema perfettione dell'anima nostra”) and whose foundation is humility. Here, not only is Marguerite portrayed as a paragon of all positive qualities, but in her the proper order of these is achieved whereby the worldly is subordinated to and sustained by the spiritual.⁶

Colonna also conveys a positive image of her gender in her letters to her cousin Costanza d'Avalos, the Duchess of Amalfi, who shared her interests in religious reform and in literature.⁷ However, in the three consecutively numbered letters to Costanza, rather than focus on her addressee as she had done with Marguerite, Vittoria focuses on exemplary holy women that both she and her cousin experience “seeing” in visions. Colonna seems to take on a mentoring role here as she instructs Costanza with respect to the visions.

In letter 168 which is the shortest (292-94), Colonna writes to her cousin as if Costanza were to be mystically present at a heavenly gathering of the holy family, and she requests that Costanza communicate to her the “gratie ricevute.” Colonna then describes, literally pre-views, the miraculous nature of the vision Costanza will see, as though she were seeing it herself. While the Holy Father and the Son are reverently portrayed at the beginning, toward the end of Colonna's description it is Mary who dominates the scene emerging as the most praiseworthy and vividly described presence of the group (including Paul, Augustine, and Mary Magdalene) of which she is part. She is the one Colonna advises Costanza to pay the most attention to (“et sopra tutto ti prego ti sforzi veder”) because of her indispensable role in heaven: “la singolarissima patrona e regina nostra Maria” (294).⁸

Letter 169 (295-99) is more directly Colonna's own vision of Mary, which she shares with Costanza along with occasional instructions regarding what her addressee should focus on most intensely. It is also a longer, more elaborate celebration of the Holy Mother. Colonna writes: “Questa mattina il mio più caro pensiero vedeva con l'occhio interno la Donna Nostra et del cielo con sommo affetto et soprabondante letitia abbracciare il Suo Figluolo” (295). For her outstanding nature, Colonna continues, Mary holds a place in heaven above all other creatures (“supera gli angeli … supera gli arcangeli … passa i cherubini …,” 296-97). She is inferior only to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, by whom she has been placed at her high station and from whom she derives her power and wisdom. While Colonna is clear in stating Mary's secondary position in the divine hierarchy and the fact that her attributes derive from male divinity, she also affirms the value of these attributes: “Il gran Padre” is satisfied to show his power “nella potente figliuola, e il Figliuol gode d'haversi con la sua sapientia ordinata sì sapiente madre” (297). In the second part of the letter, Colonna tells Costanza to lower her gaze from the heavenly dimension and to meditate on Mary's life on earth. And here, similar to the first part, she is portrayed as a figure whose qualities—while derivative—convey significant effectiveness, perhaps even more in this earthly setting. Here Mary is portrayed as a bold, dynamic, and strong maternal figure as Colonna recalls her participation in Christ's life. A rapid sequence of images, based on Gospel stories and medieval sources, depicts her passionate devotion to him as an infant, her love as she followed him through his life of miracles, and her steadfast courage when she was present at his death.⁹ Colonna goes so far as to close the letter (using medieval sources rather than the Gospels) with a startling image of Mary's intellect and articulateness, an image that depicts her after Christ's departure from earthly life as a teacher and preacher who spread the word to the faithful. True, she is “maestra vera costituita dal maestro,” but none the less she is an authoritative presence:

Pensa che illuminati accenti allhor formava, che sagge ignite parole uscivan dalla santa bocca, che pietosi et chiari raggi lampeggiavano da quei lumi divini, che rettissimi consigli senza uscir delle leggi davan legge a chi l'udiva.

(299)¹⁰

Letter 170 (299-302) celebrates Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Mary Magdalene. Colonna arranges her portrayals of the two saints in an alternating, complementary sequence of images: “Di due gloriose donne, sorella amantissima, vorrei ragionar teco” (299). Catherine is portrayed according to legends of her as the brave virgin and brilliant intellect who argued the cause of Christianity before the emperor Maxentius, and whose affirmation of Christ's divinity as well as conversion of pagans brought her to violent martyrdom. She is depicted as an exemplar of “fermezza,” confident in her knowledge and ability to persuade, and resistant to earthly temptation—a symbol of the spiritual prevailing over the worldly.¹¹ Alternating with scenes of Catherine's life and death are images of the Magdalene, no less an advocate of Christ. Colonna portrays her in scenes of her life from Gospel stories and legends (her following of the cross, her presence at Christ's empty tomb, and, after the ascension, her preaching and self imposed exile) as an exemplar of unrestrained love for Christ.¹²

Both saints are shown to be superior to those around them. Catherine stands out in a leadership role because of her numerous conversions and her “intrepido animo” before the pagan emperor who tormented and martyred her. The Magdalene's superiority is conveyed in the image of her unremitting fervor. When, after his death, faith cooled for the other followers of Christ, namely the male apostles, her love grew stronger: “quando a gli altri per la sua morte s'intrepidì la fede, accendersi a lei l'amore” (301). It was she alone who went to the tomb and because of her persevering love she was privileged to see the resurrected Christ. Moreover, to authorize her role as “sua apostola,” he made her the “prima annunciatrice” of the miraculous news to the other apostles. Thus Colonna emphasizes the superiority of the two saints by placing each in a context of others—Catherine among pagans and converts, and the Magdalene among other apostles who are less passionate than she. Another important aspect of their superiority is that they both manifest authority through the power of the spoken word: “ambedue con le ignite, saggie et dolci parole convertir vedo regine con li regni et numero grandissimo di persone” (300). Catherine possesses vast knowledge and the ability to use it in her defenses and conversions. The Magdalene, as we saw, was made the “prima annunciatrice” of Christ's resurrection. Also, perhaps referring to her in this episode or perhaps also to her legendary missionary role of spreading Christ's word after his ascension and before her self imposed exile, Colonna identifies her as “perfettissima et dotta pronunciatrice del Verbo divino” (301).¹³ Both saints then, like Mary in the previous letter, are female presences who spoke actively and articulately and whose words influenced others in the role of preachers, a role that because of its authoritative nature was traditionally male.

The letter concludes with an image of the saints' happiness in the presence of the Lord and with Colonna's suggestion that Costanza and she look to these figures as examples: “Hora specchiamosi noi ne le opere dei bellissimi lor corpi, et i pensieri delle sante e chiare menti imitando” (302). Imitating them will instruct Costanza and Colonna in their own devoutness.

Two other positive images of women stand out in Colonna's correspondence: one of the woman taken in adultery, and the other of the Holy Mother during the Passion—a similar if not more forceful rendition of Mary to the one in the longer letter to Costanza. These portrayals were not addressed to women as the letters we've seen so far, but instead probably to Bernardo Ochino, the charismatic reform preacher with whom Colonna was associated. That Colonna wrote to him of these female religious figures should come as no surprise. He himself preached and wrote admiringly of Mary and the Magdalene, and did so perhaps in part because the lessons of exemplarity they typify stood in contrast to the patriarchal establishment he sought to reform. Surely Colonna, aware of his esteem for exemplars of her gender, was inspired and encouraged to communicate her own portrayals of female figures to him.¹⁴

Colonna relates the Biblical story of the woman taken in adultery to Ochino in letters 144 and 145 of the Carteggio (241-46).¹⁵ She appears as a bold figure who prevails over her accusers, the Pharisees. As with Catherine and the Magdalene, an opposition is set up between the adulteress and the others—the virtuous woman made strong by her faith and the corrupt male Pharisees who are represented as ignorant and ineffective. Also the Holy Mother in the meditation, “Pianto della Marchesa di Pescara sopra la Passione di Christo” (Simoncelli 423-28), presumably addressed to Ochino as well, is represented as superior to those around her. She is a monumental presence in her forceful grief at Christ's earthly departure. All of humanity depends on Mary's efficacy, for she alone upholds the world. Colonna makes the point of Mary's centrality by dramatizing the absence of other previously loyal followers of Christ who should be present at this scene of his death but who are not.

These pieces are also interesting because they exemplify the way Colonna's own narrative voice tends to take on something of the authoritativeness and boldness of the figures she portrays. She provides parallel forcefulness to that of the Holy Mother as she zealously celebrates her. Moreover, in the second part of the “Pianto,” she actually gives a voice-over of the scene of the solitary figure of Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms by calling out insistently and reproachfully to all those who are not there and should be: “Et tu Andrea … vieni a veder … Mattheo venga a veder … Chiamerei Thomaso … Como non viene la Samaritana …” (425). Also, in her letters about the adulteress Colonna takes her cue form the figure's bold confidence. For example, at the beginning of one letter, she makes her own editorial choice and thus deviates from tradition when she determines that she will dispense with difficult issues that have already been dealt with: “lassarò star le difficultà tanto discusse et ventilate” (241). And later on, she disputes those authorities who portray the adulteress as timid by offering her own reading, thus again deviating from tradition while vindicating the virtues of her subject all the more: “Dicono alcuni … Et io ardisco dire il contrario: anzi credo che …” (244). Thus, her admiration for her subjects combines with a process of participation in their dramas, one, moreover, where she narratively mirrors their devotional boldness and effectiveness.

In complement to Colonna's prose works, positive female holy figures are also present in her Rime spirituali. While it is true that the Spirituali focus on her veneration of Christ, the atmosphere she creates is also populated with numerous Biblical characters and earthly figures—consistent with the myriad personalities who appear in the Carteggio. Also as in the Carteggio, most of those represented are men. However, while the total number of different men is higher than the number of women, the number of poems featuring either the Holy Mother or the Magdalene exceeds the number written about any one male figure besides Christ.¹⁶

Mary is represented more than any other figure except Christ. She appears both as a celestial presence and at various stages of her life, assuming a broad spectrum of roles such as: “Vergin sacra” (S1: 109 [S refers to the rime spirituali portion of Rime; S1 designates the portion of the rime spirituali which was collected in 1540]), “compagna, rifugio, ancella e madre” (S1: 105), “santa sposa” (S2: 24 [S2 designates the portion of the rime spirituali which was not collected in 1540]), and “Stella del nostro mar” (S1: 101). While she resembles the figure we have seen in the letters to Costanza and the one in the “Pianto,” here in verse Colonna focuses more on Mary's traditionally submissive qualities. These poems constitute an amalgam of traditional virginal innocence, chastity and modesty, and, to a lesser degree, of energetic fervor. Colonna's Mary is: “candida e pura” (S1: 106), “Vergine pura, che dai raggi ardenti / del vero Sol ti godi eterno giorno” (S1: 100). She is a figure of respectability: “Donna dal Ciel gradita a tanto onore” (S1: 103), of “castità” (S:1 102), and “d'ogni virtù exempio” (S2: 36). However, she is occasionally also vigorous and powerful: “sempre ardente” and in possession of “acceso … zelo” (S1: 105). She is depicted in a state of emotional intensity on the day of Christ's death: “Oggi la santa sposa or gode or geme” (S2: 24). And Colonna expresses her own need for Mary when she prays to Christ that the holy mother may fortify her with “sua vital forza” (S2: 22).¹⁷

More consistently dynamic is the Magdalene in the Spirituali, as she was in fact represented traditionally up to and during Colonna's time.¹⁸ She is the poetic rendition of the figure in the letter to Costanza, the penitent sinner who faithfully and without restraint shows her love for Christ. In one poem (S1: 155), Colonna illustrates the saint's courage and ardor in the episode where she kept vigil at Christ's tomb. As she had in the letter, Colonna contrasts the Magdalene to the others, the male apostles, who were less passionate than she in their faith. At the end, she extends her praise to include women in a general sense: “se 'l ver dal falso non s'adombra, / convien dar a le donne il preggio intero / d'aver il cor più acceso e più constante.” The Magdalene takes on erotic overtones in another poem where she is presented, in a way well known in Colonna's time, as a blissfully sensual lover: “Beata lei ch'eterno amor accese” (S2: 25). Probably referring to the same episode as S1: 155 at Christ's tomb, here in the garden she finds the resurrected Christ, her “vero Amante,” with whom she is portrayed in a bond of intimacy, a bond that is legitimated because of its divine nature. This scene too is marked by dynamic energy as Christ redemptively pulls her upward: “Distesa ai santi pie', possente mano / la tirò in Ciel; oh vero Amante grato, / che no 'l merto di noi ma 'l cor misura!”¹⁹ And in two other poems (S1: 121, S2: 26), Colonna depicts the Magdalene as a stoic presence during a later phase in her life—popular in legend—when she had exiled herself to a mountain cave and had rejected worldly society. The Magdalene also appears in a long poem (S2: 36) where Colonna describes a vision of the ascended Christ surrounded by his holy women. Here, the Magdalene steals the show from Mary. While the Holy Mother, “d'ogni virtù exempio,” stands stiffly at Christ's side (with only six lines devoted to her, vv. 118-23), the Magdalene (with seventeen lines, vv. 124-38, which extend nearly to the end of the poem) is the embodiment of radiant emotional energy as she lies prostrate at Christ's feet with her flowing hair and streaming tears. Colonna describes the Magdalene now in a blissful state, rewarded in heaven for her earthly devotion: “Beata lei, che 'l frutto e la radice / sprezzò del mondo e dal Suo signor ora / altra dolcezza sempiterna elice.”

However, she actually concludes the poem by focusing on her own awareness of being present at the scene, and by describing how, thanks to the vision, she herself sees and feels the beneficent effects of Christ. By experiencing the spiritual dimension where the saint now resides, by sharing her bliss—albeit vicariously, as a spectator—Colonna establishes here too, as she had in the letter to Costanza, a bond between herself and the Magdalene.

From these examples it can be seen that Colonna portrays the Magdalene and other holy female figures to promote and affirm the value of her gender, though this is not her only intention.²⁰ These figures are also intimately connected with her sense of herself. She admires them, but is also inspired by them. They influence her as guides and models, and she aspires to follow their example in the fashioning of her own positive identity.

Colonna was not alone. The phenomenon of women being inspired by models of their own gender, often in religious tradition, was a trend established well before her time. Much has been written on how medieval and early Renaissance women looked to Mary, the Magdalene, and other holy figures, as models for guidance in their day to day lives in secular and religious communities.²¹ More significantly, the recorded biographies and actual writings of religious women of this period give concrete evidence of the ways they adopted these holy figures as exemplars and supportive presences.²² A prominent example is Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) who was renowned for her religious activism. Marina Zancan, in her essay “Lettere di Caterina da Siena. Il testo, la tradizione, l'interpretazione,” describes how Catherine's religious education was modeled on previous “modelli di santità” (155). And in her letters (where she herself is a guide to other women), Catherine speaks of the guiding example of such saints as Agnesa who teaches humility, and Lucy who provides light. She writes, moreover, copiously of Mary as an awesome source of inspiration. But the female figure whom she portrays with the most intensity and affection is the Magdalene, on whom she relies as her penitential model and even her second mother. Catherine also counsels her addressees about the devout behavior of the Magdalene as a model of steadfast love for Christ.²³

Another fourteenth-century figure—more philosophical and intellectual—whose writing is also informed by female guides and models is Christine de Pizan (1365-after 1429). In The Book of the City of Ladies, for example, female guides demonstrate exemplary behavior and in so doing they vindicate the traditional notion of women's inferiority to men. The guides are of two sorts: the three authoritative figures, Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, who appear to Christine at the beginning in a vision and charge her to build a City of Ladies that will protect and vindicate women, and the exemplary heroines they describe to Christine whose lives and accomplishments represent the building blocks of the city. In the final part, Mary is honored as the Queen of all women and hailed for her sovereignty over all creatures. It is she who will govern Christine's city, accompanied by a female retinue of saints and martyrs whose descriptions follow and bring the work to its conclusion.

Catherine of Siena and Christine de Pizan were at the forefront of medieval European women who were beginning to find voices, to distinguish themselves, on the written page. Catherine's works were the first by a woman to be written and disseminated in the Italian vernacular (Nofke 110). And it has been said that Christine de Pizan was the first woman to make a profession of writing. With the presence of exemplary models in their texts, both show the need for guidance, for themselves and for the women they address—a context of positive behavior, at the same time virtuous and effective. There is a sense that such women (actively religious and/or writing women) needed models of their own gender to show them and their female addressees how to behave, models to set a standard, offer a blueprint, so that these women would know how to make their way effectively in patriarchal society where others made the rules and created the canon. Moreover, if exemplary female presences showed the way, they opened the way as well. These early women writers were perceived as strong and authoritative during their lives. And while they wanted to know how to behave effectively, they also wanted legitimacy for their inclination to do so. Their high models, whom they admired and with whom they identified, were venerated by all including the patriarchal establishment. As such, they were vehicles who conferred legitimacy as well as status on effective female behavior.

Colonna tapped into this process. We saw her acknowledgment of Marguerite as a spiritual mother, who, although human, is portrayed in terms suggestive of divinity. We saw her admiration for Mary, and the way she urged Costanza to follow the examples of the Magdalene and Catherine as well as her own desire to do so. We also noted Colonna's participation in the dramas of the adulteress and of the holy mother in the “Pianto,” and her identification with these two figures by narratively emulating their devotional boldness and effectiveness.

Some stars shine more brightly than others, however, and for Colonna the figure with whom she seems to have identified most was the Magdalene. She is represented more often than any of the other female figures, with the exception of Mary. But while Mary is too lofty a figure to actually emulate, it is the Magdalene to whom Colonna looks most as a model to provide guidance for her own behavior. It will be recalled how, in the letter to Costanza, Colonna instructs her cousin that they should reflect themselves (“specchiamosi”) in her virtue as well as in Saint Catherine's. Moreover, in three of the poems where she appears, Colonna also identifies with her. In both S1:121 and S2:26, she is represented as an “exempio,” and in S-2:36 Colonna concludes by paralleling her own desired state of bliss with the one the saint has achieved in heaven.²⁴

S1:121 is particularly important because here Colonna depicts the very process whereby she merges with the saint and replicates her nature. In this poem, Colonna portrays the Magdalene as a hermit during the last phase of her life. She appears as a sort of supernatural figure, who has set herself apart from humanity and is larger than life in her confident individuality:

          Donna accesa animosa, e da l'errante
vulgo lontana, in soletario albergo
parmi lieta veder, lasciando a tergo
quanto non piace al vero eterno Amante,
          e, fermato il desio, fermar le piante
sovra un gran monte; …

(vv. 1-6)

As the poem continues, Colonna mirrors herself in the saint's imposing presence and follows her path:

… ond'io mi specchio e tergo
nel bello exempio, e l'alma drizzo ed ergo
dietro l'orme beate e l'opre sante.

(vv. 6-8)

She elaborates the connection by seeing in her surroundings those of the Magdalene:

          L'alta spelonca sua questo alto scoglio
mi rassembra, e 'l gran sol il suo gran foco
ch'ogni animo gentil anco riscalda;

(vv. 9-11)

Finally and most important, Colonna represents her own voice as one that clearly echoes the essence of the Magdalene's nature, characterizing it as “ardita e balda” as she prays to the saint to obtain a place in heaven for her—the saint who was addressed at the beginning as “Donna accesa animosa”:

          in tal pensier da vil nodo mi scioglio
pregando lei con voce ardita e balda
m'impetri dal Signor appo sé loco.

(vv. 10-12)

The effect created is that Colonna becomes like her model. By following the saint's example, Colonna is strengthened and emboldened, and legitimated to be so. It is significant, moreover, that what is emphasized at the end of the poem is the quality of her voice—appropriate for a successful woman writer.

Colonna's poetic persona, while no doubt spirited and dynamic on its own, also recalls the Magdalene throughout the Rime spirituali. Indeed, there could be no more appropriate example for Colonna—whose Rime amorose (dedicated to her dead husband) and Spirituali trace her progression from being an earthly lover to being a spiritual one, as the Magdalene was. Colonna portrays herself as feeling and behaving in ways reminiscent of the saint in her energetic, passionate, and often joyful devotion to Christ. In one poem (S1: 7), for example, she jubilantly anticipates the soul's “nozze eterne.” In another (S1: 8), she waits “lieta e presta” for Christ, her “Sposo.” And as the Magdalene was pulled up by Christ in her heartfelt love as described in S2: 25, so in S1: 54 the poet similarly experiences his restorative powers that spiritually lift her and free her so her heart is made confident in return for her humility. Colonna also assumes the Magdalene's legendary missionary role, as “apostola” in poems where she shows and exhorts her readers how they should worship Christ and save their souls.

The influence of the Magdalene on Colonna, and more generally of the other female holy figures with whom she identifies, has a paradoxical significance. In following her models, there is no loss of identity, no effacement of self; on the contrary, there is the acquisition, the construction, and validation of self. In following them, Colonna fashions herself as strong and autonomous.²⁵ She is clearly someone who scripts her own story, who presents her own narrative persona as devoted wife and later as lover of Christ. She is also a zealous “apostola”—who may have followed in the footsteps of another one, but who was very much an “apostola” in her own right, grounded in the particular religious and political context of her own times.²⁶

With Colonna, then, the dynamic of modeling is critical to the formation of her positive female identity. Indeed, it might be said that her models are “mothers” who bequeath a legacy to her. Like Saint Catherine of Siena and Christine de Pizan, as well as other women who wrote, Colonna inherits, benefits, and evolves from the example of her models in the fashioning of her own distinctive voice. Furthermore, by inscribing them into her texts she preserves and shows her debt to the legacy they hand down to her.²⁷

While Colonna was a beneficiary of this legacy, she also had a role in perpetuating it—as a model for many contemporary and future women poets. Carlo Dionisotti describes the success of her first printed edition of poems as “una scintilla caduta nella paglia.” He notes that she was the first of a number of women who wrote in the middle of the century and that she strongly contributed “a instaurare la norma” (238). And more recently, Luciana Borsetto and Giovanna Rabitti have observed how Colonna—besides merely creating a precedent for other women—actually provides guidance through her example. To put it with Borsetto: “L'esperienza delle rime della Colonna impronta … tutte le altre … assurgendo a modello esemplare per la scrittura femminile” (186). She sees Colonna (along with Chiara Matraini, a younger poet) as the embodiment of the evolution of heroic female virtue from a form that is silent (emotional and passive)—as in traditional, ancient literary figures like Dido, for example—to an active, voiced, rational form in the Renaissance. Colonna and Matraini “Vivono: vincendo con la ragione sul dolore; con la scrittura sulla stessa morte: rendendosi entrambe illustri attraverso tale vittoria.” Traditional female virtue, rendered passive by passion, is replaced by a “nuovo modello positivo antitetico: quello razionale della scrivente” (206-07). Rabitti's approach is to show how Colonna provided for women a parallel track to Bembo's established Petrarchism with her “poesia funeraria” and her “ispirazione perennemente sul filo della nostalgia”:

Vittoria Colonna ha funzionato per le numerose poetesse che fioriranno intorno alla metà del secolo, da modello, proprio come il Bembo. Il prestigio del personaggio, l'organicità della sua produzione e la sua fama … hanno fornito alle scrittrici, specie in àmbito centro-meridionale … un codice espressivo già vòlto al feminile e pronto per l'uso.

In Colonna's “codice,” moreover, the traditional female love object is substituted by the male “amato” who is imbued with Christ-like qualities—appropriate for “donne ‘honeste”’ (148-50). It is interesting to note how this observation is particularly suggestive of the legacy of the Magdalene as lover, which Colonna revised and adapted. Rabitti's essay concludes with descriptions of women poets who followed the “codice.”²⁸

If Colonna was a model who represented female identity in a confident, empowered way that established itself as distinctively different from male identity, her influence was particularly important because she lived at a time when the climate was changing with respect to opportunities for women. The religious reform movement of the first part of the sixteenth century gave women opportunities to be active and influential, and in many ways it was a culminating point of a long tradition of female religious activism that had its roots at the origins of Christianity.²⁹ However, as the century progressed, there was a lessening of opportunity in the religious sphere as the reform movement exhausted itself and as the patriarchal Church re-established itself in Italy. With this return came an increased sense of the Church as embodying male authority and, therefore, there were greater restrictions on female religious activity and authority. Adriano Prosperi speaks of the passage from the era of “divine madri” to that of “padri spirituali.”³⁰ At the same time, however, another door seemed to be opening—into the literary dimension. Dionisotti describes the middle of the Cinquecento as a particularly vigorous literary period in a general sense, because of a combination of elements working together: the popular phenomenon of Petrarchism, which was a kind of catalyst, the renewed emphasis on vulgar Italian as opposed to Latin, and the flowering of the printing industry. Italian literary society was “in pieno sviluppo espansivo, intraprendente, loquace.” He continues, observing that: “La tendenza espansiva e associativa insieme di questa attività si manifesta non soltanto nelle accademie … bensí anche nelle raccolte antologiche di letteratura contemporanea.” The literary scene had suddenly become more open and tolerant, less restrictive. It was this that also brought greater acceptance of women: “Il fenomeno della rigogliosa letteratura femminile italiana a metà del Cinquecento anzitutto si spiega con l'improvvisa, larghissima, apertura linguistica di quegli anni. Si erano spalancate le porte …” (234-39).

In many ways it was natural and logical, once the doors of religious opportunity had closed, for women to take advantage of other opportunities where they were available, to find other areas of acceptance where they existed. And a pivotal figure of this crossover was Vittoria Colonna. She took female effectiveness to a new place.³¹ With her, positive and confident female expression (exhibited in devotional ways in her texts, through her models and through her own voice) found its way to the literary arena—an open and cordial, but none the less male, domain. It was in this way that her example as a new kind of model, a literary model, had to have helped and guided women poets of her time and future ones.

Thus, the legacy that Colonna inherited and benefited from was continued through her and bequeathed by her to others. As she had constructed her “self” by following the devotional, mostly legendary, models who came before her, so her example influenced contemporary and future literary voices, so the lessons she had learned were transmitted to these voices.³² They were poets who took different directions from Colonna—as daughters often do—but all with the effectiveness to hold their own successfully, to be clearly heard in the male arena, and many “con voce ardita e balda.”

Notes

1. Margaret King, for example, ends her panoramic view of Women of the Renaissance by questioning Kelly's argument. While acknowledging Kelly's pioneering role in observing the “dismal realities of women's lives,” King calls attention to their successes as well.” See 237-39. Also David Herlihy, whom King cites, revisits Kelly with his essay about the influential role of religious women in the Renaissance: “Did Women Have a Renaissance? A Reconsideration.”

2. For basic biographical information see, for example, Jerrold, Bainton, McAuliffe (“Vittoria Colonna: Her Formative Years, 1492-1525, as a Basis for an Analysis of Her Poetry”), and Gibaldi (“Child, Woman, and Poet: Vittoria Colonna”).

3. For Colonna's awareness and expression of her female identity, see Bassanese's useful article.

4. The most comprehensive collection of her letters are found in Vittoria Colonna Marchesa di Pescara: Carteggio, edited by Ferrero and Müller.

5. See Rutter and Saulnier.

6. Marguerite's letters to Colonna (also in the Carteggio) reveal reciprocal praise and similar ideas about women's worth. In letter 120 (202-06), which seems like a reply to 119, Marguerite looks to Colonna as a guide and thanks her for poems she had sent. Colonna is perceived as epitomizing spiritual virtue. Letter 167 (289-92) also portrays Colonna in this way. Here Marguerite entrusts Georges d'Armagnac, her young cousin and protégé who had just been made a cardinal, to Colonna's protection. Marguerite, who was as critical as Colonna of Church corruption, asks her friend to keep him from falling “nel abisso comune degli altri pari suoi, i quali in luogo di triunpho sono miserabil ruina della Chiesa” (291).

7. Costanza d'Avalos Piccolomini, Duchessa d'Amalfi was a cousin of Colonna's husband. Like Vittoria, she was interested in the reform movement and she was a poet.

8. Colonna was influenced by and part of the cult of Mary in the Renaissance, a widespread tradition that religious figures and writers like Saint Francis, Bernard of Clairvaux, Iacopone da Todi, Dante, and Petrarch played roles in developing, as well the medieval authors of The Golden Legend and Meditations on the Life of Christ. Colonna was also influenced directly by the Bible itself, most notably the Gospel of John. Another important influence was the contemporary portrayal of Mary in the sermons of her friend and mentor Bernardo Ochino (Simoncelli 209-15). And no doubt she was acquainted with the work of other contemporaries who also participated in the tradition, like Castiglione, Sannazaro, Bembo, and Veronica Gambara. For some comprehensive views of the Mary tradition see, for example, Miles, Warner, and Schreiner.

9. Colonna's Mary reflects a tendency shared with other writers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to embellish the Mary of Gospel stories, and to portray her as more immediate, vibrant, and centrally important to Christian tradition—as she appears in medieval sources like Meditations on the Life of Christ. Widely read in the Renaissance, this work is a medieval collection of legends, written in a popular style, which extends, conflates, and elaborates Gospel stories. Here, Mary is portrayed as an active participant in Christ's life, as important (if not more so) as the apostles.

10. The notion of Mary as teacher and preacher is not apparent in the Bible, but it is found, for example, in Meditation on the Life of Christ. Here, before his ascent, Christ speaks to his apostles and to Mary and tells them to “go all over the world preaching my Gospel” (375). And Christ tells Mary herself that she must remain on earth “to confirm the believers” (376). See also Schreiner about the representation of Mary as an intellectual (69-86).

11. For Catherine of Alexandria's story, see The Golden Legend, another popular and colorful medieval collection (708-16).

12. As was the case with the Virgin Mary, Colonna was also influenced by the widespread interest in Mary Magdalene in the Renaissance. Most probably, among her primary sources were the Gospels, as well as Meditations on the Life of Christ and The Golden Legend. Among others who wrote of her, and of whom Colonna was certainly aware, were Dante, who mentions the Magdalene only briefly in the Commedia, Petrarch, Iacopone da Todi, and Saint Catherine of Siena. The work of contemporaries also affected Colonna—as Ochino's portrayal of her in his preaching, and no doubt the numerous artistic representations of the saint produced in the period. Another influence was probably Castiglione, who gives her an important place in the Cortegiano. For material on the Magdalene, see Miles, Warner, and, in particular, Haskins. Finally, Grieco's essay “Modelli di santità” femminile nell'Italia del Rinascimento e della Controriforma” is informative with regard to both the Magdalene and Mary.

13. See the Magdalene's role in legends as preacher in Grieco (312-13) and Haskins (222-28).

14. For material on Colonna and Ochino, see Firpo, Fragnito, Mazzetti, and Simoncelli. See also my essay “Vittoria Colonna and Three Good Friends.”

15. This figure, also named by Ochino, is found in the Gospel of John. See Haskins (26, 28-29).

16. In Alan Bullock's 1982 edition of Colonna's Rime, the category of Rime amorose precedes the Rime spirituali. The Amorose primarily celebrate her dead husband, Ferrante Francesco d'Avalos, after he lost his life in battle in 1525. The Spirituali are poems written later when she turned her devotion to Christ. There is also a third category of Rime epistolari. In the Spirituali, Colonna writes about male Biblical figures like Pietro, Andrea, Tommaso, and others. She also writes to and about male friends and acquaintances like Pietro Bembo and Reginald Pole. Among the few female figures included in the Spirituali, besides Mary and the Magdalene she also writes about Catherine of Alexandria, the woman of Samaria, and an undetermined “donna fedel.” Also, a number of ancient wives are mentioned in the Amorose, and some contemporary noblewomen are present in the Epistolari (Giovanna d'Aragona and Veronica Gambara, who was also a poet). For recent work on Colonna's poetry, see Sonetti in morte di Francesco Ferrante d'Avalos Marchese di Pescara, edited by Tobia R. Toscano, and also Monica Bianco's essay “Rinaldo Corso e il ‘canzoniere’ di Vittoria Colonna.”

17. The traditional qualities of Colonna's Mary in verse recall portrayals of her by poets like Dante and Petrarch. Colonna echoes, in part, the conservative ideal of womanhood these poets convey in her own Mary's obedient and restrained nature. It is interesting to note that while these traits are combined with a degree of dynamism, this figure is still less dynamic than the Mary of Colonna's prose versions. These versions are more bold and authoritative not only because of the greater spontaneity allowed by prose, but perhaps also because of the sermon-like prose elaboration's (for example, Meditations on the Life of Christ and Ochino's work) she was likely influenced by.

18. Of particular interest is Petrarch's poem in Latin honoring the Magdalene. For an insightful description see Gibaldi's essay, “Petrarch and the Baroque Magdalene Tradition.”

19. This poem seems to reflect the popular revision of the episode in John where Christ says to the Magdalene: “Noli me tangere.” In Meditations on the Life of Christ, for example, the scene is modified to convey Christ's intent to elevate her and to be with her lovingly (362-63).

20. It is interesting to note in this context that, of the mere ten letters published during her lifetime, six focus on the exemplary women we have examined: letter 112 to Marguerite, the three letters to Costanza, and the two letters to Ochino on the woman taken in adultery: “Vivendo ancora Vittoria, stampavasi una diecina di sue lettere in due di quelle collezioni di lettere di celebri personaggi, delle quali compiacevasi il secolo XVI” (Carteggio vii-viii). This high percentage of published letters to and about women demonstrates her wish to promote the value of women through the printed word, if indeed it was she herself who wanted to publish the letters. Even if, on the other hand, the initiative did not come directly from her, the high percentage none the less establishes her reputation as an illustrious female writer who proudly affirmed her gender.

21. See Grieco and Miles, for example. See also Gabriella Zarri's essay “Dalla profezia alla disciplina (1450-1650).”

22. See, for example, Haskins's list of religious women who modeled themselves on the Magdalene (177-78). See also the biographies and writings of medieval and Renaissance saints, collected in Pozzi and Leonardi's anthology.

23. See The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, translated and edited by Nofke. Catherine focuses on the Magdalene in letters 1, 2, 58, and 59. Also Haskins's references to Catherine are useful (especially 182-83, 190-91).

24. Colonna's affection for and identification with the Magdalene is well known. It has been documented, for example, that in March of 1531, she asked Federico II, Duke of Mantua, to obtain a painting of the Magdalene for her. The Duke did so by commissioning Titian who was able to complete the painting the following month. Also, there exists a painting of the Magdalene by Sebastiano del Piombo at the National Gallery in Washington (exhibited at the 1997 exhibit on the representation of Vittoria Colonna at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna) in which Colonna has been purportedly recognized as actually representing the saint. For an extensive description of the connections between Colonna and the Magdalene, see Gibaldi's biographical essay.

25. Elizabeth Abel sheds light on the process of modeling in her essay “(E)merging Identities: The Dynamics of Female Friendship.” She bases her inquiry on a number of contemporary novels in which for one woman, often the narrator, a bond of affection with another becomes, through identification with this figure, a vehicle for self definition. Able notes the tendency to portray the other woman as “either older or wiser” (418), and also that the identification process is “smoothest when the object of identification is remembered or imagined” (426). To some degree, Abel's principles shed light on the process we have been examining of Colonna's definition of herself through other figures. See also Judith Kagan Gardiner's response to this essay in the same volume.

26. See Ossola's introduction to Lo evangelio di san Matteo (by Juan de Valdés), where he provides a description of the way Colonna's poetry exemplifies the basic doctrine of the Italian reform movement. See also Russell, as well as McAuliffe (“The Language of Spiritual Renewal in the Poetry of Pre-Tridentine Rome: The Case of Vittoria Colonna as Advocate for Reform”).

27. The notion of a positive legacy of literary influence is elaborated by Abel in the final part of her essay (432-35). And while she refers to nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, her conclusions apply in general to literary women. Abel contrasts this female legacy to Harold Bloom's theory of the “anxiety of influence,” where Bloom observes that male writers rebel against their male precursors in order to establish their literary identities and originality.

28. Also Jones in her study of women poets of the Renaissance (The Currency of Eros) points out that Colonna was acknowledged in the work of two younger women poets, Veronica Gambara and Luciana Bertani, as a model to admire and a source of inspiration (33-34). Interestingly, however, this is the only place in the book where Colonna is viewed by Jones as in any way authoritative or influential. To the contrary, Jones depicts her elsewhere as a rather ineffective precursor to female Renaissance poetic tradition, a conservative and traditional poet who subscribed to male canon.

29. See, for example, King, Herlihy, Zarri (Le sante vive), Roelker, Bainton (with a valuable overview of the activities of reform women by Susanna Peyronel), Pozzi and Leonardi, and Scaraffia and Zarri.

30. Ottavia Niccoli quotes Prosperi in the introduction of the anthology, Rinascimento al femminile, edited by her (xxv). See also Zarri's essay, “Dalla profezia alla disciplina.”

31. Zancan's essay on Saint Catherine of Siena provides helpful insight into the process of transition from one kind of female exemplarity and effectiveness to another. As Zancan observes, while Catherine came from a tradition of “modelli di santità” and fashioned herself on these, her devoutness also evolved into a public and self-aware form of religious activism, in part through her writing.

32. See, for example, Dionisotti, Borsetto, Rabitti, and Jones for references to many of these poets.

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