SOURCE: McAuliffe, Dennis J. “The Language of Spiritual Renewal in the Poetry of Pre-Tridentine Rome: The Case of Vittoria Colonna as Advocate for Reform.” II Veltro 40, Nos. 1-2 (1996): 196-99.

In the following essay, McAuliffe argues that Colonna's calls for reform of the Church may have been more pointed than acknowledged by previous critics, showing evidence in several of her sonnets.

Carlo Ossola has written eloquently about Vittoria Colonna's spirituality in his introduction to Juan de Valdés' Lo Evangelio di San Matteo (Roma: Bulzoni, 1985, pp. 82 ff.). His concern is the expression of Valdesian spirituality in her Canzoniere. He calls it an “esemplare testimonianza … [della] decisiva congiunzione, per la cultura italiana del Cinquecento, tra neoplatonismo estetico ed ‘hesuchisme’ religioso” (loc. cit.). Ossola's historical reference points are the early 1540s and the circle of friends at Viterbo, sometimes called the “ecclesia Viterbensis”, consisting of the two cardinals Reginald Pole and...