Sonnets of Vittoria Colonna and Michelangelo

Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547) and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564)

Colonna probably gifted the 103 sonnets to Michelangelo in around 1540. They were handwritten by one of her own calligraphers.[1]

The Christological expression of Colonna is more evangelical and explicit than the subtlety of Donne.

Colonna acknowledges the way of conversion to Christ crucified in her life; in her early years and early sonnets she desired fame; now she desires the Crucified. She did achieve fame, being the first living writer, of either gender, to have a published commentary on her collected works.[2]

Her literary endeavour no longer seeks to be self-serving, she will now endeavour to serve the gospel of the Crucified to others. This is noted by Brudin in footnote 4 of the first sonnet to Michaelangelo that we will look at below: In all the published versions of the sonnet, line 8 reads “sì ch’io scriva per me…,” “so that I may write down for myself all that he suffered.” The change to the version in Michelangelo’s manuscript reconfirms Colonna’s interest in evangelizing a message of reformed spirituality to her friend.”[3]

Colonna writes in the vernacular, for she is seeking an everyday relationship with Christ; the domestic rapport of her heart with Christ, expressed through her writings, is the foundation for her relationship with the Crucified. Just as Michelangelo will express his faith in Christ through, as notes Brundin, “the tools of his trade such as stones, rocks and chisels to express his poetic conception, sculpturing the image of his beloved in hard Alpine stone and simultaneously upon the page on which he writes.”[4] Colonna will do the same using the tools and material of quill, ink and paper, “so that I may write down for others all that [Christ] suffered,” as expressed in her opening sonnet to Michelangelo:[5]

(N.B. Brundin’s footnote references are included in full in the English translation of the sonnets below, as they are a great help to grasping the full beauty of Colonna’s writing and depth of culture, and the wider cultural and theological influences in which she is being formed in her Christian life.)

Poi che ’l mio casto amor gran tempo tenne
L’alma di fama accesa, ed ella un angue
In sen nudriò per cui dolente or langue
Volta al Signor, onde ’l rimedio venne,

I santi chiodi omai sian le mie penne,
E puro inchiostro il prezioso sangue,
Vergata carta il sacro corpo exangue,
Sì ch’io scriva ad altrui quel ch’ei sostenne.

Chiamar qui non convien Parnaso o Delo,
Ch’ad altra aqua s’aspira, ad altro monte
Si poggia, u’ piede uman per sé non sale.

Quel sol, che alluma gli elementi e ’l cielo,
Prego ch’aprendo il suo lucido fonte
Mi porga umor a la gran sete eguale.

Since my chaste love for many years
kept my soul aflame with the desire for fame,[6] and it nourished
a serpent in my breast so that now my heart languishes
in pain turned towards God, who alone can help me,

let the holy nails from now on be my quills,
and the precious blood my pure ink,
my lined paper the sacred lifeless body,[7]
so that I may write down for others all that he suffered.[8]

It is not right here to invoke Parnassus or Delos,[9]
for I aspire to cross other waters, to ascend
other mountains that human feet cannot climb unaided.

I pray to the sun, which lights up the earth and the
heavens, that letting forth his shining spring
he pours down upon me a draught equal to my great thirst.

Colonna’s lively faith is nurtured and increased by the scriptures, especially the gospels. In her sonnets to Michelangelo she explores the personal relationships of various gospel figures and great saints to Christ. In so doing, she is also exploring and enlivening her own relationship with the Crucified and, at the same time, making herself a more capable guide for Michelangelo and others along the same road. The Plaints also explores this in a poignant way (we briefly explore her prose further below), as various gospel personages are paraded and interrogated before the Crucified.

As Zacchaeus, the tax collector, is “moved by intense desire to gaze upon the great sun that lights up the sky”, Colonna seeks to raise herself “high enough that the surrounding crowds could not overshadow even” [her] feeble understanding.[10]

Colonna seeks to follow in the footsteps and imitate Mary Magdalene, “a woman of passion and spirit…. joyous in turning away from all the things rejected by her one true lover”, Christ.[11]

Colonna contemplates the witness of St Stephen, using the imagery of a concerned mother as she uses of herself in relation to her ministry of spiritual guidance of others, such as Pole[12] and Michelangelo:

The first martyr kept his eyes fixed on God, … because every stone that struck him seemed a sweet arrow that rent the heaven ever wider … He prayed for his enemies, and a mother would not pray more ardently for mercy for her own son than he prayed for them with sweet love.
Nor was a precious gem ever more prized
By an avaricious man than that stone was to him,
Which penetrated straight to the center of his heart.[13]

Colonna contemplates how St Andrew, brother of St Peter, was the first to follow Christ; by God’s gentle grace Andrew was able to see clearly and choose the “straight and short roads” to the victory of the cross: “Thus on the bitter cross you saw the sweetness and the clarity of heaven and the immortal life, which to other, blind men appeared to be only cruel death.”[14]

Thomas, in his doubting encourages Colonna and those for whom she writes, to convert “to a true and humble faith”, since, “the blessed rib opened up the heavens to him, and to us the shorter and straighter road by far, which leads us, through faith, to follow in his footsteps.”[15]

Colonna reflects on the grave need for reform in the church which “now opposing vices have made her low and vile” and calls on St Francis, “in whom as if in humble wax with the stamp of love Jesus imprinted his wounds so clearly” who loved the church on earth, “now pray in heaven, blessed spirit, that she may return again pure and gentle to good thoughts, desires, and sacred works.”[16] This theme of the church in need of reform is taken up again towards then end of her compendium. St Peter is called upon to intercede for the current Pope in his endeavours for reform:

I see your net so laden with weeds and mud,
Peter, that if some wave
breaks over it or engulfs it
it may be torn and endanger your boat,
for it does not, as it should, float easily,
light and unburdened, over the turbulent sea,
but rather, in bow and stern, from one shore to the other,
is so weighed down that it sails in grave danger.[17]

Brundin, in an endnote, contextualises the ecclesial situation in which Colonna wrote and was no insignificant player:

The successor of Peter as Bishop of Rome is in this period Pope Paul III, who in 1540 was still seeking a compromise with the reformers from Northern Europe and endeavoring to cleanse the church from within. One of Paul III’s ill-fated attempts at this was the convening of a reforming council, which included Reginald Pole among its numbers, in Rome in 1536. The council produced a frank document, the Consilium de emendanda ecclesia (Advice on the Reform of the Church) but ultimately failed to make any noticeable move towards reform.[18]

The sonnet is a prayer to St Peter, admonishing him to now come to the aid of Pope Paul III, as the concluding stanza reveals:

Your noble successor, elected by
just reason, often turns his heart and his hand
to the task of guiding the boat to port;
but the wickedness of others
swiftly pits itself against his will, so that all now realize
that without your help he acts in vain.

In closing her sonnet sequence gift to Michelangelo, Colonna, in the penultimate and ultimate sonnets, returns to one theme in her opening sonnet, that of her sonnet writing being an evangelical task that others may be guided to and in their faith. Already in sonnet 63, Colonna reflects on how such a small number, the group of apostles, have called a multitude of people to faith: “twelve alone of the elect have caused thousands and thousands to call out in a great voice to the Lord, who was unknown to them before”.[19] In her penultimate sonnet, Colonna states that in front of her mistakes of “rough, uncultivated verses” her:

primary concern is not
to garner praise for it, or avoid contempt,
or that after my joyful return to heaven,
my poems will live on in the work more highly honoured;
but the divine fire, which through its mercy
inflames my mind, sometimes gives out
these sparks of its own accord,
and if one such spark should once warm
some gentle heart, then a thousand time
a thousand thanks I owe to that happy mistake.[20]

  1. Brundin, Abigail. Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation: (Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700), p. 81. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. ↑
  2. Cf., ibid., p. 33. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. ↑
  3. Brundin, Abigail (editor & Translator). Vittoria Colonna. Sonnets for Michelangelo. A Bilingual Edition. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005, p. 141. ↑
  4. Brundin, Abigail. Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation: (Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700) (p. 82). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. ↑
  5. From Sonnets for Michelangelo. A Bilingual Edition. Edited and translated by Abigail Brundin. University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 2005. pp. 56-57; 1. S1:1 (1538), fol. 1v. The initial number refers to the numbering of the sonnet in Colonna, Rime, ed Alan Bullock (Rome: Laterza, 1982). The date is the first date of publication of the sonnet in question. The folio number shows its position within the Vatican manuscript. ↑
  6. This is a reference to the poet’s earlier amorous sonnets, written in memory of her deceased husband Francesco D’Avalos. ↑
  7. The language of this opening sonnet is notably corporeal and rich and in fact might be described as “Michelangelesque” in its affinity to the poetry of Michelangelo himself. This is a striking departure for Colonna, whose verses are generally highly formal and controlled, and it can be thought to signal the new emphasis that this whole manuscript represents, of a sustained interest in evangelical religious questions. ↑
  8. In all the published versions of the sonnet, line 8 reads “sì ch’io scriva per me…,” “so that I may write down for myself all that he suffered.” The change to the version in Michelangelo’s manuscript reconfirms Colonna’s interest in evangelizing a message of reformed spirituality to her friend. ↑
  9. Parnassus, a mountain range in Greece, was considered to be sacred to Apollo and the muses and therefore the natural abode of poetry and music. Delos is the island birthplace of Apollo, one of the twelve gods of Olympus. He was seen as the embodiment of the rational and civilized side of man’s nature and was therefore lauded as patron of poetry and music. The poet rejects these more traditional locations of poetic inspiration in order to reconfirm her sole interest in seeking out divine poetic expression. Petrarch makes use of a similar conceit in sonnet 166, although instead he bemoans the fact that love has driven him from the path of true poetic inspiration so that he has wandered far from the sacred spring of Parnassus and his verses are no longer fertile. ↑
  10. Brundin, Sonnets for Michelangelo, A Bilingual Edition, University of Chicago (Kindle edition 2005) p. 67. (14. S1:57 (1542), fol. 8r) first stanza.
    S’io, mossa con Zacheo da intenso affetto
    Per mirar quel gran sol che ’n ciel fa giorno,
    M’alzassi tanto che le turbe intorno
    Non fesser ombra al mio basso intelletto (p. 66) ↑
  11. Brundin, Sonnets, 26. S1:121 (1538), Fol. 14r p. 77.
    Donna accesa animosa, e da l’errante
    Vulgo lontana in solitario albergo,
    Parmi lieta veder lasciando a tergo
    Quanto non piace al primo eterno amante (p.76) ↑
  12. Sonnet 99 in Brundin, Sonnets, p. 135, is addressed to Cardinal Reginald Pole. It begins with, “My son and master, if your first and true mother abides in prison” and in line 8 continues: “I pray you turn your eyes from time to time so that your second mother does not perish.” Brundin, in endnote 279, notes that “Pole’s mother Margaret was imprisoned by Henry VIII in 1539 and executed in 1541, essentially martyred for her son’s failure to endorse the king’s divorce and his subsequent move over to Rome.” In endnote 281, Brundin notes that “by referring to herself as the Cardinal’s “second mother,” the poet establishes a significant link with the role of the Virgin Mary, second mother after Eve according to Gn 3:15.” ↑
  13. Brundin, Sonnets, 40. S1:119 (1546), fol. 21r p. 87-88.
    Non sol per la sua mente e pura e retta
    Il martir primo in Dio le luci fisse
    Tenne, pregando sì ch’al ciel prescrisse
    Il far del suo morir degna vendetta;
    Anzi ogni pietra a lui dolce saetta
    Parea che ’l ciel più largamente aprisse,
    Or li parean corone intorno fisse
    Da lui per gloria sua ciascuna eletta.Per suoi nemici orò, né mercé impetra
    Madre con tal desio per figlio caro
    Quanto ei pregò per lor con dolce amore;
    Né mai lucida gemma ad uomo avaro
    Fu in pregio sì come a lui quella pietra,
    Che più dritto li giunse in mezzo ’l core.↑
  14. Brundin, Sonnets, 48. S1:117 (1546), fol. 25r pages94-95.
    Quante dolcezze, Andrea, Dio ti scoverse
    Alor che salutandol di lontano
    Adorasti il supplizio empio inumano
    Ove al padre il Signor per noi s’offerse.
    Col santo fuoco ei proprio il cor t’aperse,
    E vi raccolse con la forte mano
    Dentro l’alte virtù, che il nostro insano
    Voler manda di fuor vaghe e disperse.
    Onde ne l’aspra croce il dolce e ’l chiaro
    Del ciel vedesti e quella immortal vita,
    Che parve a gli altri ciechi dura morte.
    La tua fortezza celere e spedita
    Vittoria elesse per vie dritte e corte,
    Che fanno il viver bello e ’l morir caro.↑
  15. Brundin, Sonnets, 74. S1:118 (1546), fol. 38r pages 114-115.
    A la durezza di Tomaso offerse
    Il buon Signor la piaga, e tai gli diede
    Ardenti rai ch’a vera ed umil fede
    L’indurato suo cor tosto converse.
    L’antica e nova legge gli scoverse
    In un momento, ond’ei si vidde erede
    Del ciel, dicendo, “È mio ciò ch’ei possede,
    Sì e quei mio che tanto ben m’aperse!”
    Ond’ei li disse poi, “Maggior è il merto
    Di creder l’invisibile, per quella
    Virtù che non ha in sé ragione umana.”
    Il ciel fu a lui col bel costato aperto,
    A noi la strada assai più corta e piana
    Per fede di trovar l’orma sua bella.↑
  16. Brundin, Sonnets, 33. S1:123 (1546), fol. 17 pages 82-83.
    Francesco, in cui sì come in umil cera
    Con sigillo d’amor sì vive impresse
    Le sue piaghe Iesù, che sol t’elesse
    A mostrarne di sé l’imagin vera,
    Quanto ti strinse ed a te quanto intera
    Die’ la sua forma e le virtuti istesse,
    Onde fra noi per la sua sposa eresse
    Il tempio e ’l seggio e l’alma insegna altera.
    Povertade, umil vita e l’altre tante
    Grazie l’alzaro al più sublime stato,
    Quanto or per suoi contrari è bassa e vile;
    L’amasti in terra, or prega in ciel, beato
    Spirto, ch’ella ritorni omai pura gentile
    Ai pensieri, ai desiri, a l’opre sante.↑
  17. Brundin, Sonnets, 101. S1:116 (1546), fol. 51v pages 136-137.
    Veggo d’alga e di fango omai sì carca,
    Pietro, la rete tua, che se qualche onda
    Di fuor l’assale o intorno la circonda
    Potria spezzarsi e a rischio andar la barca,La qual, non come suol, leggiera e scarca
    Sovra ’l turbato mar corre a seconda,
    Ma in poppa e in prora, a l’una e l’altra sponda
    È grave sì che a gran periglio varca.
    Il tuo buon successor, cui la ragione
    Si drittamente elesse, e cor e mano
    Move sovente per condurla a porto;
    Ma contra ’l voler suo ratto s’oppone
    L’altrui malizia, onde ciascun s’è accorto
    Ch’egli senza ’l tuo aiuto adopra invano.↑
  18. Brundin, Sonnets, p. 170, endnote 286. ↑
  19. Brundin, Sonnets, 63. S1:67 (1546), fol. 32v p. 107. ↑
  20. Brundin, Sonnets, 102. S1:4 (1546), fol. 52r pp. 137-9.
    S’in man prender non soglio unqua la lima
    Del buon giudizio, e ricercando intorno
    Con l’occhio disdegnoso io non adorno
    Né tergo la mia rozza incolta rima,
    Nasce perché non è mia cura prima
    Procacciar di ciò lode o fuggir scorno,
    Né che dopo il mio lieto al ciel ritorno
    Viva ella al mondo in più onorata stima;
    Ma dal foco divin, che ’l mio intelletto,
    Sua mercé, infiamma, convien ch’escan fore
    Mal mio grado talor queste faville,
    Et s’alcuna di lor un gentil core
    Avien che scaldi, mille volte e mille
    Ringraziar debbo il mio felice errore.↑