Vittoria Colonna

Born from that marriage, which through the union of Fabrizio Colonna and Agnese da Montefeltro joined one of the most important Roman families with the reigning dynasty of the dukes of Urbino, Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) was a poet and a great lover and promoter of culture. After marrying Fernando Francesco d’Avalos (1490-1525) in Ischia in 1509, she lived on the island, where she had already moved years earlier, for most of his life. In Ischia, Vittoria was the centerpiece of one of the most famous Italian Renaissance courts, frequented by geniuses and artists of the caliber of Michelangelo Buonarroti (with whom she struck a strong and lasting bond of friendship), Jacopo Sannazaro, Ludovico Ariosto and Pietro Aretino. After her husband’s death as a result of injuries sustained in the victorious battle of Pavia (1525), she retired to a convent in Rome, where, however, she came into contact with some people who were promoters of reform within the Catholic Church, above all Juan de Valdés, Bernardino Ochino and Pietro Carnesecchi. The frequent contrasts of his brother, Ascanio Colonna, with the popes, forced her to leave Rome on several occasions: this avoided her from experiencing the sack of the city in 1527 in first hand and to get to know other prominent personalities of the period, such as Cardinal Reginald Pole. She died in Rome in 1547.