Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation

by Abigail Brundin

Overview

Vittoria Colonna was one of the best known and most highly celebrated female poets of the Italian Renaissance. Her work went through many editions during her lifetime, and she was widely considered by her contemporaries to be highly skilled in the art of constructing tightly controlled and beautifully modulated Petrarchan sonnets. In addition to her literary contacts, Colonna was also deeply involved with groups of reformers in Italy before the Council of Trent, an involvement which was to have a profound effect on her literary production. In this study, Abigail Brundin examines the manner in which Colonna's poetry came to fulfil, in a groundbreaking and unprecedented way, a reformed spiritual imperative, disseminating an evangelical message to a wide audience reading vernacular literature, and providing a model of spiritual verse which was to be adopted by later poets across the peninsula. She shows how, through careful management of an appropriate literary persona, Colonna's poetry was able to harness the power of print culture to extend its appeal to a much broader audience. In so doing this book manages to provide the vital link between the two central facets of Vittoria Colonna's production: her poetic evangelism, and her careful construction of a gendered identity within the literary culture of her age. The first full length study of Vittoria Colonna in English for a century, this book will be essential reading for scholars interested in issues of gender, literature, religious reform or the dynamics of cultural transmission in sixteenth-century Italy. It also provides an excellent background and contextualisation to anyone wishing to read Colonna's writings or to know more about her role as a mediator between the worlds of courtly Petrachism and religious reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317001058
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/11/2016
Series:	Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	234
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dr Abigail Brundin is a lecturer in the Italian Department at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Fellow of St Catharine's College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Petrarchism, Neo-Platonism and Reform; Chapter 1a The Making of a Renaissance Publishing Phenomenon; Chapter 2 The Influence of Reform; Chapter 3 The Canzoniere Spirituale for Michelangelo Buonarroti; Chapter 4 The Gift Manuscript for Marguerite de Navarre; Chapter 5 Marian Prose Works; Chapter 6 Colonna's Readers: The Reception of Reformed Petrarchism; Chapter 7 The Fate of the Canzoniere Spirituale; conclusion Conclusion;

Editorial Reviews

’All in all, Brundin delivers what'she promises, relieving Colonna of her subsidiary and largely passive status, weaving a convincing narrative as regards both the innovative nature of the poet’s work, characterized by the new spiritual uses of the Petarchan lyric tradition, and her influence in mid-century among reformist sympathizers.’ Modern Language Review ’'What Abigail Brundin accomplishes in her richly documented study is a loving labor of resuscitation, bringing back the intellectual woman.’ Renaissance Quarterly ’This work is not only a very informative study of a major sixteenth-century religious poet, it also makes an important contribution to our understanding of Italian Evangelism.’ English Historical Review ’This learned and thought-provoking study of Colonna will be of great value both to students of early modern literature and to those who seek a deeper understanding of the complex and paradoxical attitudes of sixteenth-century reformers.’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History ’Densely but vividly written, Brundin’s study represents the mature reflections and sensitive probing of a perspicacious scholar and critic. Her documentation is voluminous and displays a complete mastery of primary and secondary sources. ... a rewarding resource for graduate and undergraduate students of Italian literature, church history, or gender studies.’ Sixteenth Century Journal

From the Publisher