Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

21 results

Page 1 of 2

  • 3 - Magistra apostolorum: The Virgin Mary in Birgitta of Sweden and Vittoria Colonna

  • Edited by Virginia Cox, Shannon McHugh
  • Book:
    Vittoria Colonna
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    16 December 2021
    Print publication:
    06 November 2021, pp 75-94

  • Summary

    Abstract

    Vittoria Colonna used a series of role models, such as the heroines of classical mythology, or female saints such as Catherine of Alexandria and Mary Magdalene, in the construction of her image as an intellectually aspiring and moral exemplary noblewoman. This chapter argues that Birgitta of Sweden (1303–73) should be added to Colonna's gallery of female models. As an aristocratic widow in Rome with reform inclinations, with a strong public voice, and above all with an extensive textual presence that extended throughout Italy and to other European countries, no one could fit better as Colonna's exemplum than Birgitta. As this chapter explores, the clearest traces of Birgittine imitations are to be found in Colonna's radical meditations on the Virgin Mary.

    Keywords: The Italian legacy of Birgitta of Sweden, reformed Mariology, Sermo Angelicus, the circulation of Birgitta's revelations in Italian Renaissance, imitation of Mary, Colonna's spiritual poems.

    In three letters addressed to her younger cousin Costanza d’Avalos Piccolomini, Vittoria Colonna paints a surprisingly authoritative picture of the Virgin Mary. The letters were collected and published in Venice in 1544 with the title Litere della divina Vetoria Colonna Marchesana di Pescara a la Duchessa de Amalfi sopra la vita contemplativa di santa Caterina e sopra de la activa di santa Madalena. What the title suggests is that the letters focus on two saints who were of special importance for Colonna. Catherine of Alexandria and Mary Magdalene represented two forms of spiritual life, the vita contemplativa and the vita activa, which were widely celebrated in Christian tradition and were the objects of a renewed interest in the Italian Renaissance. Despite not appearing in the title, however, the true protagonist of the volume is the Virgin Mary, who in many ways epitomized the fusion of the contemplative and the active life, an ideal for which Colonna herself so eagerly strove. As we can read in the third letter, while Catherine and Magdalene represent two different approaches to the ‘true sun’ (vero sole) whose rays adorn and embellish them both, the Virgin is chosen over all other women. She is the glorious queen of Paradise and the woman who gave birth to the sun. Therefore, it is Mary, ‘our most singular patron’ (singularissima patrona), as Colonna calls her in the first letter, whom she encourages Costanza d’Avalos to imitate.

The Cambridge Companion to Petrarch
  • Edited by Albert Russell Ascoli, Unn Falkeid
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    24 November 2015
  • Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–74), best known for his influential collection of Italian lyric poetry dedicated to his beloved Laura, was also a remarkable classical scholar, a deeply religious thinker and a philosopher of secular ethics. In this wide-ranging study, chapters by leading scholars view Petrarch's life through his works, from the epic Africa to the Letter to Posterity, from the Canzoniere to the vernacular epic Triumphi. Petrarch is revealed as the heir to the converging influences of classical cultural and medieval Christianity, but also to his great vernacular precursor, Dante, and his friend, collaborator and sly critic, Boccaccio. Particular attention is given to Petrach's profound influence on the Humanist movement and on the courtly cult of vernacular love poetry, while raising important questions as to the validity of the distinction between medieval and modern and what is lost in attempting to classify this elusive figure.

Page 1 of 2