Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna

by Ramie Targoff

Overview

A biography of Vittoria Colonna, a confidante of Michelangelo, the scion of one of the most powerful families of her era, and a pivotal figure in the Italian Renaissance

Ramie Targoff’s Renaissance Woman tells of the most remarkable woman of the Italian Renaissance: Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara. Vittoria has long been celebrated by scholars of Michelangelo as the artist’s best friend—the two of them exchanged beautiful letters, poems, and works of art that bear witness to their intimacy—but she also had close ties to Charles V, Pope Clement VII and Pope Paul III, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Pietro Aretino, Queen Marguerite de Navarre, Reginald Pole, and Isabella d’Este, among others.

Vittoria was the scion of an immensely powerful family in Rome during that city’s most explosively creative era. Art and literature flourished, but political and religious life were under terrific strain. Personally involved with nearly every major development of this period—through both her marriage and her own talents—Vittoria was not only a critical political actor and negotiator but also the first woman to publish a book of poems in Italy, an event that launched a revolution for Italian women’s writing. Vittoria was, in short, at the very heart of what we celebrate when we think about sixteenth-century Italy; through her story the Renaissance comes to life anew.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374538224
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	666,978
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ramie Targoff is a professor of English, the cochair of Italian studies, and the Jehuda Reinharz Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University. She is the author of Common Prayer: The Language of Public Devotion; John Donne, Body and Soul; and Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England. She lives with her husband and son in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: In Search of Vittoria Colonna 3

1 The View from the Cliff 11

2 Donning Widow's Weeds 26

3 Longing for the Nunnery 44

4 Becoming a Poet 58

5 The Sack of Rome 77

6 Life at Court 90

7 Among Preachers and Pilgrims 111

8 Hidden Heretics 132

9 The Power of Print 159

10 Michelangelo in Love 176

11 Salt War 208

12 Late Love 227

13 Last Rites 252

Conclusion: In the Archive of the Inquisition 275

Notes and Bibliography 291

Acknowledgments 325

Index 329

Editorial Reviews

"Vittoria Colonna’s name has always been there, hovering in the wings, but with Ramie Targoff’s vibrant, timely study, Renaissance Woman, she comes into the spotlight...[In] Targoff’s hands the bits of [Colonna's] puzzle fit together beautifully. Here is a woman capable of deep, almost obsessional feeling, with an equal capacity to put those feelings into poetry...Vittoria Colonna has always deserved to be better known. Ramie Targoff’s fine book will surely make that happen." —Sarah Dunant, New York Times Book Review

"Ms. Targoff is adept at keeping the reader informed of the complex geopolitical machinations taking place in Colonna’s life, among them the conflict between Clement VII and Charles V, which pits her family’s loyalties against her husband’s, and the schism in the church wrought by Lutheranism. All of this is introduced not as dry context but as high drama. Working closely with Colonna’s letters and poems, Ms. Targoff gives her the vividness of a fictional protagonist."
—Cammy Brothers, The Wall Street Journal

"Targoff (Common Prayer), professor of English and cochair of Italian studies at Brandeis University, paints Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547) as an embodiment of the Italian Renaissance in this enjoyable narrative, noting Colonna’s intense religiosity and role as the first published female Italian poet . . . Targoff provides several helpful translations of Colonna’s poems, accompanied by clear explications of her struggles with mourning and spirituality, which her letters also documented . . . Targoff’s well-researched, thoughtful biography reveals Colonna as a complex woman who turned grief and a spiritual quest into a renowned literary reputation." —Publisher's Weekly

"Insightful . . . Targoff captures the Renaissance's 'simultaneous magic and strangeness' in a single woman." —Kirkus

“Targoff, the author of books on John Donne, the language of devotion, and the theme of Eros and the afterlife in Renaissance English, fills a profound gap, providing the first modern biography of this remarkable person . . . Targoff’s efforts are both spritely and scholarly in this book to be enjoyed by any literate reader.” —Library Journal


“Targoff' biography shows how Colonna’s commitment to the Catholic Church intersected with her participation in cultural and political transformation.” —Booklist

“Ramie Targoff has given us an enthralling portrait of one of the most talented women of Renaissance times: the “divine” Vittoria Colonna, as she was called by her friend Michelangelo. Celebrated for her love sonnets and religious poetry, the widowed Colonna crafted a life between nunneries and the courts of her fellow aristocrats, between Protestant reformers and Catholic believers, all while fascinating some of Europe’s great figures with her presence. Ramie Targoff recreates these worlds with enormous skill and leaves us delighted with her quest.” —Natalie Zemon Davis, author of Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds

“I was engrossed, inspired, and moved by the story of this groundbreaking, contradictory, and overlooked literary figure. Ramie Targoff brings Vittoria Colonna to life with a novelist’s flair for plot, detail, and character. Her passion for her subject is contagious, and her analysis of Renaissance culture is both scrupulous and empathetic, at once erudite and richly dramatic.” —Jhumpa Lahiri, author of In Other Words

“‘May the holy nails now be my quills,’ wrote Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, in one of her shattering sonnets, a profession of her dedication to the suffering of Christ through the writing of poetry. ‘And may his precious blood be my ink.’ Ramie Targoff’s learned and powerful account of the lavishly wealthy sixteenth-century Italian noblewoman who wanted to be a nun as much as she wanted to write unlocks this much-overlooked Renaissance woman from the prison of the poet’s own making—the prison of her grief—and from another prison, too: the prison of the archives, from which Renaissance Woman has at last released her.” —Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman

“One of the most glamorous women of the Renaissance, Vittoria Colonna, well-born and gifted, friend of Michelangelo, rich in every sense, has finally received the attention she deserves. No wonder it has taken so long: Vittoria’s life and career require a biographer with research skills, scholarly dedication, linguistic brilliance, wide-ranging knowledge, and writing talent—combined with a passionate interest in women’s lives—that Ramie Targoff may be alone in possessing. Many will be grateful to her for giving us so extraordinary and inspiring a heroine.” —Phyllis Rose, author of Parallel Lives

From the Publisher

The Italian Renaissance has no shortage of flamboyant females. Think of Lucrezia Borgia, traduced by slander and gossip, and of Isabella d'Este, greedy for art. Vittoria Colonna's name has always been there, hovering in the wings, but with Ramie Targoff's vibrant, timely study, Renaissance Woman, she comes into the spotlight. Colonna's life, at first glance, is unpromising for a modern biographer…But in Targoff's hands the bits of the puzzle fit together beautifully…Targoff proves herself as good a popular historian as she is a literary critic. These were troubled times in Italy, filled with political and religious upheaval, and she is a terrific guide, navigating us smoothly through complexity, aided and enhanced by the starry cast of characters in Colonna's orbit…[This is] the study of a passionate, complex woman with formidable poetic talents: someone who, while embedded in her own age, emerges as a thinker and seeker in tune with a modern audience. Vittoria Colonna has always deserved to be better known. Ramie Targoff's fine book will surely make that happen.

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Dunant

12/11/2017
Targoff (Common Prayer), professor of English and cochair of Italian studies at Brandeis University, paints Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547) as an embodiment of the Italian Renaissance in this enjoyable narrative, noting Colonna’s intense religiosity and role as the first published female Italian poet. Humble despite her family’s high stature, Colonna was shocked when her literary work was published. But her romantic paeans to her late husband and religious sonnets encouraged other women to publish and inspired established male poets to ask for her elegant literary critiques of their work. Targoff provides several helpful translations of Colonna’s poems, accompanied by clear explications of her struggles with mourning and spirituality, which her letters also documented. Like her poetry, Colonna’s life centered on both the secular and the sacred; her friendship with Michelangelo and occasional political involvement contrasted with her frequent convent stays. Colonna also became part of the failed Catholic reformation movement; as a result, the Vatican compiled Inquisition documents listing her “heretical beliefs.” The unpublished documents and other contemporary sources Targoff presents, along with lines from the sonnets, illuminate Colonna’s reformist tendencies. Targoff’s well-researched, thoughtful biography reveals Colonna as a complex woman who turned grief and a spiritual quest into a renowned literary reputation. Illus. Agent: Jill Kneerim, Kneerim & Williams. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Italian Renaissance poet Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara, comes to life through Targoff’s extensive research and compelling narrative. Narrator Justine Eyre’s fluid and flavorful pronunciation of Italian words and expressions transports listeners deeper into Vittoria’s privileged world. Born into a powerful Italian family, Vittoria held a front-row seat to an era rife with religious and political divisions and rich in artistic output. Widowed young, Vittoria devoted her life to cultivating her faith and producing critically and publicly acclaimed poetry. Correspondence with family and notable figures, including Michelangelo and Queen Marguerite of Navarre, is lightly characterized with an Italian, British, or French accent, depending on the individual’s country of origin. Targoff concludes with her appreciation for access to Vatican research materials. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

2017-11-21
"The Renaissance comes to life anew" in this insightful biography of a remarkable Italian woman."It is impossible to imagine the Renaissance without her." Targoff's (English, Italian Studies, Humanities/Brandeis Univ.; Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England, 2014, etc.) claim regarding the importance of Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara (1490-1547), is a lofty one, but she makes a strong case for it in this thorough and painstakingly researched academic biography. Due to the paucity of extant primary sources about and by Vittoria, Targoff draws upon the complex history of the times and some considered speculation to tell her subject's compelling story. The author has done yeoman's work scouring Italian libraries, archives, and monasteries to locate, identify, and personally translate obscure Latin and Italian manuscripts. The Roman Colonna family was one of the most powerful in Italy, and Vittoria was well-educated and devout. She and her future husband, Ferrante, from Naples, were just children when their marriage was arranged around 1495; they took their vows in 1509. When her husband, a soldier fighting for Charles V, was killed in battle, she was "thirty-five years old, a widow, and childless." Targoff describes her as a solitary woman. She wanted to enter a convent, but Pope Clement said no. Disappointed, she returned to the family castle on an island where she "transformed her sorrows into verse." Her more than 130 sonnets about her grief and faith, Targoff argues, "broke entirely new ground for women's poetry." When a pirated edition of her poems was published in 1538, she became the first Italian woman to publish a book of poetry and the "most celebrated religious poet of the era." She later became friends with the influential religious reformer Reginald Pole and Michelangelo, "my most singular friend."Targoff captures the Renaissance's "simultaneous magic and strangeness" in a single woman.

Kirkus Reviews