Vittoria Colonna

Vittoria Colonna
Marchesa di Pescara
Vittoria Colonna, by Sebastiano del Piombo, c. 1520
Spouse(s)	Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, Marquis of Pescara
Issue Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquis del Vasto (adopted)
Noble family	Colonna
Father	Fabrizio Colonna
Mother	Agnese da Montefeltro
Born	April 1492 Marino, present-day Italy
Died	25 February 1547 (aged 56) Rome, Papal States (present-day Italy)
Occupation	Poet

Vittoria Colonna (April 1492 – 25 February 1547), marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet. She developed an artistic friendship with Michelangelo Buonarroti, with whom she exchanged verse. The early death of her husband, in 1525, gave Colonna the opportunity to develop and maintain her literary contacts and become one of the most popular poets of sixteenth-century Italy.

Vittoria Colonna was born at Marino, a fief of the Colonna family in the Alban Hills near Rome. She was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, and of Agnese da Montefeltro, daughter of the Duke of Urbino. Colonna was betrothed when she was four years old to Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, son of the marquis of Pescara, at the insistence of Ferdinand, king of Naples. She received the highest education and gave early proof of a love of letters. Her hand was sought by many suitors, including the dukes of Savoy and Braganza, but at nineteen, by her own ardent desire, she was married to d'Ávalos on the island of Ischia on 27 December 1509. There she became part of the literary circle of Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla, her husband's aunt.

There the couple resided until 1511, when her husband offered his sword to the League against the French. He was taken captive at the Battle of Ravenna (1512) and conveyed to France. During the months of detention and the long years of campaigning which followed, Colonna and d'Avalos corresponded in the most passionate terms both in prose and verse, but only one poetic 'Epistle' to her husband has survived.