SOURCE: Bainton, Ronald H. “Vittoria Colonna.” In Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy, pp. 201-18. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1971.

In the following essay, Bainton surveys Colonna's life and career, examining how she gives voice in her experiences, as well as discussing her friendship with Michelangelo, and exploring her Christian faith and reaction to the Roman Inquisition.

Vittoria Colonna is best known of all the Italian women treated here because of the inspiration which she afforded to Michelangelo. That inspiration was religious, and her religion must be understood before the subject can be approached. She was another of the high born ladies of the Renaissance, educated in Latin as well as in Italian.¹ A daughter of the house of Colonna, she was married at 17 to the Spanish hidalgo D'Avalos, the Marchese of Pescara. The marriage of 18 years was but briefly romantic, for he was often absent in...