The most published and lauded woman writer of early sixteenth-century Italy, Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) in effect defined what was the "acceptable" face of female authorship for her time. Hailed by the generation's leading male "literati" as an equal, she was praised both for her impeccable command of Petrarchan style and for the unimpeachable chastity and piety of the persona she promoted through her literary works.
This book presents for the very first time a body of Colonna's verse that reveals much about her poetic aims and outlook, while also casting new light on one of the most...

Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) was the genre-defining secular woman writer of Renaissance Italy, whose literary model helped to establish a decorous and wholly assimilated voice for women within the field of Italian literature. The Companion to Vittoria Colonna brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of leading scholars to assess Colonna's contribution, both as a writer, a role model, and a contributor to important religious debates of the era. This book, while amply fulfilling the remit of providing a useful and comprehensive handbook to meet the needs of students and...

How did religion colour daily life in the Italian Renaissance home? Peering into the privacy of family rites of passage - childbirth, marriage, and death - the authors expose patterns of piety that helped individuals to confront both the dangers and delights of everyday life, using such material objects as books, artworks, jewellery, and relics.