Selected Letters: A Bilingual Edition, 1523–1546 by Vittoria Colonna (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Selected Letters: A Bilingual Edition, 1523–1546 by Vittoria Colonna Maria Serena Sapegno Selected Letters: A Bilingual Edition, 1523–1546. By Vittoria Colonna. Ed. by Veronica Copello; trans, by Abigail Brundin. (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 88) New York: Iter Press. 2022. xiv + 186 pp. $48.95. ISBN 978–1–64959–028–2. This volume completes the string of texts dedicated to Vittoria Colonna in the same series, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe—Sonnets for Michelangelo: A Bilingual Edition, ed. and trans. by Abigail Brundin (Chicago, 2005); Poems of Widowhood: A Bilingual Edition of the 1538 'Rime', ed. and trans. by Ramie Targoff (Toronto, 2021)—in a remarkable achievement. A larger public is now in a position to evaluate the significance of a complex personality and a writer who was a unique model for European women in her time: the first to have a book of poetry printed in her name. [End Page 626] The historical-critical Introduction helps to situate Vittoria Colonna's epistolary activity within a public and private life that was complicated and intense, and not without difficult or even dramatic moments. Her life, after the untimely death of her husband in 1525, was always traversed by a tension between, on the one hand, the allure of meditative withdrawal into a regime of prayer and writing and, on the other, the need to fulfil family and social commitments related to her position as a member of the ruling class. Colonna's collected letters, which, thanks to intense research in recent years, now stand at about 270 documents and may grow further, reflect the richness and variety of her life and interlocutors, as manifested in the plurality of stylistic registers and variety of content. For these reasons, the undertaking presented the two editors with the far from straightforward task of making a selection that would preserve this richness and make sense of it in an already complex and fast-moving historical and cultural context. Incidentally, this is precisely the period when, thanks to the press, epistolary writing was on its way to becoming a literary genre in its own right, through the publication of model texts and collections by various authors, among whom Colonna herself finds a place. Pietro Aretino, her correspondent and admirer, published the first printed collection of letters in 1538. The edition comprisese forty letters covering the period from 1523 (before her husband's death) to 1546 (shortly before her own death in 1547). This selection, although limited in number, manages to give an idea of the social position of the writer, her authority, and her wide network of relationships, to provide an insight into her interests, her passions, and, last but not least, her opinions in diverse fields and subjects. Many of these letters are in fact among her most famous. Each letter has its own introduction that explains its importance and meaning, references the critical bibliography, and, very usefully given the increased attention being paid to this field, provides an update on the most recent critical studies. The annotations to the texts are also rich and accurate, providing the information necessary for an understanding of the content. Colonna's correspondence touches on major themes and personalities: to Castiglione she speaks of the Cortegiano, to Bembo of the cardinalate obtained in part thanks to her mediation; she thanks Charles V for his letter of condolence on the death of her husband and Michelangelo for sending a drawing of the Crucifix; and she writes a clear-cut letter to Paul III in defence of the Capuchins, challenging the Farnese Pope, who presented himself as a reformer. But there are also three particularly long letters of theological and spiritual depth that show the author engaged in reflection on the relationship between the active and the contemplative life, addressed to a young relative of her husband's family, Costanza D'Avalos. These were published together in a small volume iii 1544, but it is not clear whether Colonna authorized their publication. What is perhaps not sufficiently clear from this commendable collection is the overall importance of the epistolary form in the life...