SOURCE: McAuliffe, Dennis J. “Vittoria Colonna and Renaissance Poetics, Convention and Society.” In II Rinascimento: Aspetti e Problemi Attuali, edited by Konrad Eisenbichler and Olga Zorzi Pugliese, pp. 531-41. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1982.

In the following essay, McAuliffe discusses the aesthetic assessments made of Colonna's poetry and the different criteria used for evaluation by Renaissance and modern reader. He also considers her use of conventional techniques, and concludes that Colonna's poetry reveals a depth of critical understanding even as it relies on established rules of composition.

Vittoria Colonna is far better known as an historical figure than as a poet. Every student of the Renaissance knows that she is the woman friend of Michelangelo's later life and many know that she was active in Italian “evangelismo” in the pre-tridentine years, along with such religious leaders as Reginald Pole and Gasparo Contarini in the orthodox camp and Juan...